Pendergrass, Hamman retain county commission seats
Lee County voters re-elected District 2 Commissioner Cecil Pendergrass and District 4 Commissioner Brian Hamman to office in the Nov. 3 General Election, giving each longtime commissioner more than 60% of the vote.
Voters also overwhelmingly chose to change the method by which commissioners are chosen from at-large to single-member districts, meaning commissioners in the future can only be elected by voters in the district they live in. Currently, voters countywide can vote for every commissioner in each district.
For both Hamman and Pendergrass, this could be their last four-year term as county voters also voted to set term limits for county commissioners. The new county charter measure restricts commissioners to sitting on the board for no longer than three consecutive terms. The commissioners would have to skip an election to run again.
Pendergrass said on Tuesday night this would be his last term. He said he supported the term-limit measure.
“I am very excited and happy to serve Lee County again for four years,” Pendergrass said.
He had opposed the change to single-member districts, which was led by Lee County’s delegation of Republican state legislators. Pendergrass spoke out against the initial proposal.
“That’s going to be interesting in how that serves Lee County in the future. Obviously I am going to represent everybody in Lee County as I always have done,” he said.
“I just hope that people and the future boards don’t get polarized and just look at their neighborhoods, forget about neighborhoods across the street and across the river because we are just one big community,” Pendergrass said. “I want everybody to have the same services across the county.”
The commissioners will face a steep challenge with the passage of Amendment 3. Amendment 3 will increase the homestead exemption for homeowners from up to $50,000 of their property value to up to $250,000 of their home’s value. The exemption will cover county taxes, local city and town taxes, and special district taxes, though not school taxes.
Lee County officials have projected that the exemption will cost the county more than $120 million in the first year in tax revenue and more than $240 million in the second year.
Pendergrass, who opposed Amendment 3, said he thinks voters were misled by the campaign in support of Amendment 3.
“I think people were misled into thinking they won’t get a tax bill next year,” Pendergrass said. “Their tax bill won’t really go down that much.”
Pendergrass said the impacts will be deep to local programs.
He expects the county’s Conservation 20/20 program, which directs county funds to protecting ecologically sensitive lands, could be depleted.
“There will be big changes to how we do our budget,” Pendergrass said. He said funding for parks and recreation and human services will be “drastically cut.” He thinks there could even be new tax increases either at the local or state level.
Hamman could not be reached for comment.
To reach NATHAN MAYBERG / nmayberg@breezenewspapers.com, please email