To the Editor:

The Aug. 18 election was a landslide, with an overwhelming victory for the reform movement of Sumter County residents. Backed by both the POA and the Fair Government for Sumter political action committee, County Commission reform candidates Craig Estep, Oren Miller and Gary Search (the “EMS team”) won the Republican Primary with almost two-thirds of the vote. Then, with the withdrawal of the “fake” write-in candidates (Wahl and Prince), Estep and Miller were automatically elected to the County Commission in their county districts. However, in county District 1, Gary Search still needs to win the general election against a less-known independent candidate in order to become the third reform candidate elected to the county commission.
Therefore, we still have work to do. The recent actions by the Developer to demolish the Hacienda Country Club and his plans to build an over 280-unit apartment building shows the vulnerability of Villages residents to abuse by the developer. As a result of the successful POA-backed, class-action lawsuit against the developer, the Amenity Authority Committee, an elected committee, controls use of amenities north of 466. Unfortunately, the AAC approved allowing the developer to use previously owned amenities for the apartment residents.
Each numbered CDD is independent of the other numbered districts. Therefore, control of EACH numbered CDD by reform-minded supervisors is critical. In CDD 5, one of the supervisors (who provided no support whatsoever to the reform movement) is being challenged by a reform candidate, the founder and chairman of the Fair Government for Sumter, Reed Panos. Both the residents and the developer have a common interest in making The Villages a good place to live (and, from the developer’s perspective, a good place to sell houses). However, as most recently shown by the apartment controversy and the 25% county-tax increase for the residents to finance the Developer’s sweetheart impact fee, the interests of the developer and the residents often conflict. If elected, Reed Panos will fight any action by the developer that negatively impact us, the residents. For example, what is happening at Hacienda Hills Country Club might have been halted if the AAC had not approved the free use of our amenities and if the CDD Supervisors had spoken out against the actions by the developer’s lame-duck puppets on the County Commission–who are about to authorize construction of those apartments. Additionally, there is nothing to currently prevent what happened in Hacienda Hills CC, from happening to Cane Garden CC, unless we get control over district 5 CDD with reform minded supervisors.
To continue the movement to reform local government in Sumter County so that it represents the residents, not the developer, on November 3:
Vote for Gary Search, county district 1, for county commissioner; and
In CDD 5, Vote for Reed G. Panos, for supervisor.
In the future, Fair Government for Sumter will be identifying supervisor candidates for each of the numbered CDDs, working to replace any supervisors who are not actively representing the residents. Also, in two years, Fair Government for Sumter will also work to replace the remaining two developer puppets on the county commission. Let’s continue the reform movement!

Reed G. Panos
Fair Government for Sumter