Konk Life Candidate Questionnaire: GREGORY D. DAVILA for Key West City Commission, District IV

Q. Let our readers know the reasons in general that you believe you would make the very best person to fulfill the position for which you are running.

A. I have 27 years of professional experience as an attorney and problem solver working and volunteering in our community.

Q. What specifically are the top four factors you believe qualify you over the assets of any other potential candidate?

A. With three decades of consistent dedication to our community; a steady, analytical approach to problem-solving; a dependable application and focus on advocacy; and a commitment toward reliable, hard work, I am ready and able to do the work for our district.

Q. What is your personal view on the state of the nation in this year’s particularly interesting political season?

A. As a candidate for the non-partisan Key West City Commission, I will leave the partisan politics to those that reside in Tallahassee and Washington. We are a close community and personal decency matters. How we treat each other matters.

Q. Given your personal awareness of governance in Southeast Florida, are you optimistic about relations between the public and the powers that be?

A. I am always an optimist. Living in our community, I believe we have a duty to tell our representatives how we feel about issues that are important to us. Open communication with our elected representatives is a necessary element of our democracy.

Q. Do you feel that the general tenor of political discourse is becoming less polite in Monroe County or staying about the same?

A. Fortunately, I have not been privy to “less polite” political discourse regarding our local issues. I believe that additional discourse and conversation usually leads to mutual understanding and pragmatic solutions to the problems that we sometimes face.

Q. Tell us more about your personal history –- your work and family life –- and how they relate to your political ambitions?

A. As a parent with my wife Heidi of two boys ages 12 and 16, the primary caregiver to my 86 year-old mother and a business owner for 27 years, I believe I understand the challenges that working families and seniors face. My oldest son is currently on a summer cultural exchange program in Tanzania, Africa and my youngest son is experiencing a great lesson in civics by helping in our campaign. I enjoy advocating for my clients through my law practice and look forward to doing the same for our district and City. In our extra time, we volunteer in our schools’ PTO, athletic leagues, community development projects and community organizations.

Q. From your personal experience, would a generally peaceable outlook in the Keys depend upon a measure of control over the number of our visitors and residents?

A. Yes. I would like to improve on the quality of tourist that visits Key West. From a resident’s perspective, the day-tripper does not seem to provide much of a benefit to our residents, our tax base, or to many of our local businesses (hotels, guesthouses, restaurants, charter boats). We should encourage a better quality of tourist to enjoy our community. We should discourage our Monroe County partners from spending our bed tax advertising dollars on attracting visitors that do more to congest our streets than improve our quality of life.

Q. What do you personally love most about Monroe County and the Florida Keys?

A. The PEOPLE.

Q. What troubles you the most about today’s Monroe County and the Florida Keys?

A. The congestion and drift of focus away from the residents’ needs to a volume-based tourism industry.

Q. What planning or political mistakes do you personally believe were the worst to be inflicted on the Keys over the past decade?

A. Unregulated transient rentals.

Q. Who is your favorite character in the history of the keys?

A. Killy Gray

Q. Who is your least favorite character?

A. Wilma.

Q. What is your favorite book?

A. To Kill a Mockingbird

Q. What is your favorite movie?

A. Young Frankenstein

Q. What is your favorite quote?

A. “Always do right – this will gratify some and astonish the rest.”

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