The chairman of the Project Wide Advisory Committee said he will be throwing his hat into the race for the Sumter County Commission.
Don Wiley, a resident of the Village of Hillsborough and chairman of the Community Development District 10 Board of Supervisors, confirmed Wednesday he will be running for the District 5 commission seat.
The District 5 race was thrown into chaos earlier this week when appointed Commissioner Diane Spencer, a resident of the Village of Gilchrist, announced she had resigned. She also withdrew her candidacy for the District 5 seat.
That same day, Oren Miller of the Village of Sanibel filed paperwork with the Sumter County Supervisor of Elections Office to seek the District 5 seat to which he was elected in 2020. Miller was arrested last year on a charge of perjury. He is accused of communicating with fellow Commissioner Gary Search by phone in violation of the Florida Sunshine Law, and then lying about it. Search is also facing a perjury charge. He and Miller were suspended from their commission seats by the governor.
Through his years on the CDD 10 board and serving on PWAC, Wiley has distinguished himself as an independent voice, looking to serve the residents of The Villages. Wiley has also been an occasional critic of the Sumter County Commission. Last year, when CDD 10 had to make the tough decision to boost its maintenance assessment rate to build up its longterm reserves, he said CDD 10 did not want to find itself in the position Sumter County was in when it passed a 25 percent tax increase in 2019.
Wiley has been a resident of The Villages for eight years.
“We need an objective voice on the commission,” Wiley said. “We need someone without an agenda.”
He will be running as a Republican, which would pit him against Miller in the GOP primary in August.
