Two Villagers made history Thursday night when they were sworn in as the first residents of Florida’s Friendliest Hometown to serve on the Fruitland Park Commission.
It also was a night when a former mayor also voted against Mayor Christopher Cheshire continuing in that role.
Patrick DeGrave, representing District 1, and John Mobilian, of District 2, both took the oath of office at the beginning of Thursday’s night Fruitland Park Commission meeting. DeGrave lives in the Village of Pine Ridge, while Mobilian resides in the Village of Pine Hills. DeGrave ran unopposed to replace Commissioner Rick Ranize, while Mobilian defeated fellow Villager Fred Collins in Tuesday night’s general election to replace Commissioner Ray Lewis, who also served on the city’s charter review committee in 2014.
The commission also voted Thursday night to appoint Chris Cheshire to a third term as mayor. But things got a little heated when former Mayor Chris Bell voted against Cheshire.
Bell claimed that since redistricting took place in 2014, Fruitland Park residents had been assured that each commissioner would have a turn as mayor. Cheshire immediately questioned Bell about his long tenure as mayor. Bell then nominated John Gunter to fill the role. Gunter turned down the nomination before it received a second. Cheshire promptly was voted in on a 4-1 vote to serve a third term as mayor, with Bell voting against him. And Gunter was unanimously approved to continue as vice mayor.
A longtime advocate of transparency in government, Cheshire said he takes the appointment quite seriously.
“I am honored to serve the citizens of Fruitland Park as mayor,” he said. “I will continue to do what I’ve done since the first day I joined the commission in 2012 – push for continued growth, commercial expansion and lower taxes for our residents. I believe there are wonderful opportunities ahead for Fruitland Park and with the right kind of growth comes the prosperity we all dream about.”
Cheshire, who called the way the city was being run when he first became a commissioner a “circus,” said he’s thankful things are much different today and he’s looking forward to working with DeGrave and Mobilian.
“I think it’s fantastic that The Villages portion of the city has its own representatives on the commission now,” he said. “There is an active base of voters there and citizens who clearly care about their community, so it’s great to see these two Villagers step up and be willing to put in the time to serve their fellow residents.”
DeGrave, who moved to The Villages in June 2017, spent 39 years in local government, first as a Mount Pleasant, Wis., police officer/sergeant for 16½ years and then in six local governments in Wisconsin and Illinois for 22½ years. He has four college degrees and has been an adjunct faculty member at Concordia University in Wisconsin for the past 24 years, now exclusively in the online program since retiring to Florida.
A native of Racine, Wis., DeGrave said he believes his fellow Villagers deserve to have an experienced commissioner representing them.
“I felt my professional and educational experience would be useful to the city,” he said.
DeGrave, who has been married to his wife, Sue, for 40 years, said he’ll strive to make good decisions for the city and his district. And he added that he’ll make it a priority to provide quality services for the health, safety and welfare of the taxpayers.
“I see continued development opportunities on the horizon for the city,” he said. “And I hope to bring my experience to the table to help make good land-use and growth decisions.
Mobilian described himself as a fiscal conservative during his campaign and vowed to bring that same philosophy to the commission – something that obviously resonated with his fellow residents, as he garnered 62.07 percent of the vote to Collins’ 37.93 percent in this week’s election.
The retired Federal Express pilot also said it was important for Villagers to elect someone who would will have their best interests at heart.
“We all worked hard for everything we have and don’t throw our money away,” he said. “We don’t want our government to throw it away, either.”
During his campaign, Mobilian frequently pointed out that Villagers who live in both Fruitland Park and Lake County are the “highest taxed residents” in Florida’s Friendliest Hometown. He and his wife, Mary Ann, who served as his campaign manager, played a big role in getting a large turnout of Fruitland Park Villagers at two recent commission meetings, where questions were raised about everything from the city’s millage rate to the 2019 budget to spending on the new library.
“They came to us in our campaign and asked us to help them organize and get the word out so people could make it to the budget hearing,” he said after the Sept. 21 commission meeting. “I think it was pretty successful.”
Mobilian said he’s always been “passionate” about politics, and now that he’s retired, he has the time to act on his dream of serving others.
“Since I believe that we should all do our part to serve our communities, I decided I would be honored to represent District 2,” the four-year Air Force veteran said.
Both DeGrave and Mobilian will serve four-year terms. Neither Ranize nor Lewis, who suffered a heart attack in September, were eligible to run for their seats again because they don’t live in the districts they represented. Both were elected in 2014 at the same time voters overwhelmingly approved an amendment to divide the city into five districts, thereby assuring they would be one-term commissioners unless they at some point decide to run for a seat to represent the districts where they actually live.
