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A veteran of local government and a political newcomer face each other in a Republican primary this month in a race to represent the Collier County commission district that includes Naples and neighborhoods east of it.
Penny Taylor, a longtime former Naples councilwoman who was elected county commissioner for District 4 in 2014, and Stephen Jaron, a local businessman and first-time candidate, are squaring off in the Aug. 28 primary.
More:Here's what you need to know about election season in Collier County
More:Learn about Collier Commission District 4 candidate Stephen Jaron
Taylor, who was a Naples councilor for a decade and has her own photography business, is running on her experience as an elected official and what she points to as her record of taking on difficult issues, like affordable housing.
"I'm a proven entity," Taylor said.
Jaron, who owns a local construction and home renovation business and is a former member of the Bayshore Beautification MSTU Advisory Committee, has vowed to keep taxes in check and wants to be a voice for a district he says isn’t getting the proper representation.
“I don’t think that the people are being heard,” he said. “I really think there’s a big gap.”
The winner will go head-to-head with Gary Petit-Dor, a financial adviser and sole Democrat in the race, in the Nov. 6 general election.
Jaron says there is a disconnect between county, residents
Jaron, 55, said he felt a disconnect between residents and local government firsthand about a year ago when he and his wife had a mermaid mural painted on a commercial building they own in the redevelopment area along Bayshore Drive.
“We were trying to create some art in the Bayshore arts district,” he recalled.
But despite going “through the proper channels” and having the conceptual design approved, Jaron and his wife received a code enforcement citation. The issue has since been resolved, Jaron said, but the experience helped push the self-professed political rookie to run for office.
“I feel there is a disconnect there between the folks that have lived there many, many years, 20, 30, 40 years, and the county,” he said, referring to some District 4 residents.
The property that backs up to Sugden Park on the east side of Bayshore Drive could become a “capstone” for an arts district, with lofts for artists, retail and a small theater, he said, noting that “at the very least” the community would like to see a connection between the site and Sugden Park.
“I’d like to see it developed into kind of a central place that would draw folks to the area that don’t necessarily live in the area,” Jaron said.
Jaron: 'I was always a kid who liked to build stuff'
Born in West Philadelphia, Jaron moved nearby to southern New Jersey when he was 4 or 5. His dad worked as an architect, his mother mostly in the private sector before switching over to county government in New Jersey at the end of her career.
Jaron graduated from the University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in marketing in 1985. He then returned to Philadelphia, worked for several corporations and got his master’s degree in business administration at Drexel University in 1992, taking classes in the evening.
After about 15 years in the corporate world, including time with General Electric, Jaron started his own general contracting business, Renovate & Restore, LLC, in 2001.
“I was always a kid that liked to build stuff,” he said. “So I eventually gravitated back to that field.”
Seeking “a nice place to raise kids,” Jaron and his wife, a jewelry designer, moved to Collier in 2004.
Jaron's and Taylor's views on proposed sales tax hike
As a commissioner, Jaron said he would like to look for cost savings within the county budget rather than raise property taxes or impose new ones, like a proposed 1 percent sales tax hike residents will vote on in November.
If approved, the 1 percent jump would end after seven years or after it brings in $490 million, whichever happens first. The increase would pay for a variety of projects, including expanding roads and bridges and buying new facilities, equipment and parks.
Jaron said he’s not against the projects but would prefer the county find the money elsewhere rather than raise a tax he said will affect residents and small businesses.
With property values projected to go up, the county will generate more property tax revenue anyway, he said.
“I think once we get in a habit of raising taxes, sales tax, it’s not going to stop,” he said. “I know they have a built-in sunset for it. But from my perspective living in the Northeast, sales tax increases don’t usually go away. There’s always something else to spend money on.”
Taylor said she is not sure yet how she will vote on the sales tax item.
Taylor says more affordable housing needed
While Jaron’s run for office is a first for him, Taylor 68, has been in the public eye for more than a decade, first as a councilwoman and vice mayor in Naples and more recently as a county commissioner.
Probably the “biggest underlying issue” in Collier when it comes to being able to provide affordable housing, Taylor said, is the high cost of land.
“The effects of the lack of affordable housing is going to become more apparent,” she said, adding that Arthrex’s announcement last year about its expansion to South Carolina was at least in part based on “affordable housing and lack of training.”
To help solve the problem, establishing a housing trust fund “would be very helpful,” she said, and using the county’s community housing plan as a “roadmap” is important.
She supports "inclusionary zoning" to help spread out affordable housing across the county. The policy requires or encourages new residential developments to make a certain percentage of the units affordable to low- or moderate-income residents in exchange for incentives like density bonuses.
“It makes sense,” she said. “It’s done successfully in a lot of places.”
Expedited zoning could be another way, Taylor said, to encourage more affordable units. “Because time is money for a developer,” she said.
Jaron said his approach to workforce housing would be to "urge Habitat for Humanity to build homes for civil servants, i.e., police, fire, EMT, teachers, etc."
Taylor was a photographer before she was elected
Born in Toronto, Canada, Taylor spent eight years on a family-owned farm before her family moved to the U.S in the mid-1960s, bouncing among Naples, Fort Lauderdale and then South Carolina, where she finished high school. Her dad worked as a salesman. Her mom was a housewife tending to Taylor and her younger sister.
“My father had a dream of warm weather and he was tired of the cold in Canada,” she said. “So we were immigrants.”
Taylor received her bachelor's degree in English from the University of South Florida in 1971 and moved to New York City, where she lived for seven years and got involved in photography.
With her mother in Naples, Taylor came to Collier in the late 1970s and worked as a photojournalist with the Naples Daily News before opening her own photography business a few years later.
Taylor, a member of Naples’ city council from 2000 to 2010, said she now has her eye trained on the county’s coming growth and redevelopment.
Taylor wants 'give and take' with developers
For the Bayshore redevelopment area to become a true arts district, it could use “a signature development that spoke to the arts that would help anchor that there,” she said, adding that the 17-acre site may be a candidate for that.
But Taylor wants to make sure that some of the area’s longtime residents don’t fall victim to gentrification once redevelopment there takes off. One way to protect residents who may be on fixed incomes from being priced out, she said, could be to offer grants that allow them to stay until they want to sell their homes.
“The people that are there in the neighborhoods, they deserve to reap the benefits of a CRA, besides increasing their property values,” Taylor said, referring to the Community Redevelopment Agency, established in 2000 to help eliminate blight in the area.
Taylor is also concerned about future developments in rural areas in eastern Collier, including plans for a large new town on the 4,000-acre Rural Lands West property off Oil Well Road just east of Golden Gate Estates.
The developer, Collier Enterprises, is proposing to preserve more than 12,000 acres of agriculture, wildlife habitat and environmental flowways, and wants to build up to 10,000 residences of varied styles and designs.
But the large number of deviations from the existing rules for growth caught Taylor’s eye, she said.
In general, Taylor said there needs to be give and take between developers and the community.
“For me my attitude now is, ‘Oh you want increased density? What are you going to do for us?’” she said. “... what are you going to do for us as the taxpayers and this community?”
Taylor outraising Jaron in campaign contributions
Two local developers have dug deep into their own pockets and contributed to Taylor’s campaign.
Collier Enterprises and some of its affiliates have contributed at least $5,000. Stock Development and some of its affiliates have contributed another $5,000. The combined $10,000 from the two developers contributed to Taylor is about two-thirds of what her primary opponent, Jaron, has raised overall so far.
Jaron, who has not received the same level of support from developers, has raised about $15,000. Taylor has collected more than $67,000 so far.
But the campaign dollars from the developers won’t change her approach to how she considers votes on future projects, Taylor said.
Taylor pointed to her early years on the Naples City Council when she was one of four councilors voting to overturn the controversial Hamilton Harbor marina project along Naples Bay.
The divisive Collier Enterprises development was first approved by a prior city council and then overturned by — among others — Taylor, then a newly minted councilor. The council later approved a revised version of the project.
“Then we subsequently settled for something much smaller,” she recalled. “That was me. So they know who I am. … They know I can’t be bought.”
At the end of the day, Taylor said, she has to be able to live with herself and her decisions.
“I’ve got to be able to look at myself in the mirror,” she said. “It’s my own integrity.”
Family: Married, twin children
Collier County resident since: 2004
Work background: Corporate career with Fortune 500 companies for 15 years, owner of general contractor Renovate & Restore, LLC for 17 years
County service: Bayshore MSTU chairman, Gordon River Greenway director, Rowing Association of Naples director, YMCA youth basketball coach
Q: What would you do as commissioner to encourage the creation of workforce housing?
A: "Urge Habitat for Humanity to build homes for civil servants, i.e., police, fire, EMT, teachers, etc."
Q: What steps should the county take to diversify its economy?
A: "Foster existing small business growth, attract high-tech manufacturers and service firms. (Arthrex is a good start)."
Q: How should the county prepare for a surging population?
A: "Completion of existing Planned Unit Developments before permitting of new PUDs. Allow growth to pay for growth. Prepare for economic downturns and natural disasters."
Family: One daughter, two grandchildren
Hometown: Born in Toronto, naturalized citizen 1985
Collier County resident since: 1978
Work background: Owned and operated my own photography business since 1983
County service: 10 years on Naples City Council, termed out in 2010 as vice mayor
2014 - 2018: District 4 county commissioner
2017: County Commission chairwoman
2015 - 2017: Tourist Development Council chairwoman
2015 - 2017: Metropolitan Planning Organization chairwoman
2018: County Commission liaison to Economic Development Department of Collier County Government
Q: What would you do as commissioner to encourage the creation of workforce housing?
A: "I have been and will continue to be a strong advocate for workforce housing. I support the county’s housing plan review. I take every opportunity to present accurate data to the public regarding workforce housing and I review successful workforce housing initiatives in other communities. I initiated the county’s review of county-owned property for consideration for workforce housing."
Q: What steps should the county take to diversify its economy?
A: "We must continue to support workforce-training initiatives by the Chamber of Commerce and Collier County Public Schools and explore ways to assist their efforts. Protect and enhance our quality of life to attract new companies. Create ‘shovel-ready’ sites for prospective companies to consider and market these sites aggressively. The Rural Lands Stewardship Area and the Rural Fringe areas would be ripe for the establishment of innovation zones."
Q: How should the county prepare for a surging population?
A: "The county must invest in adequate infrastructure to support this growth ... parks, libraries, EMS stations, roads, etc. Our natural resources must be carefully managed. Adequate and clean water is very important to sustain a growing population. Planning for 10, 20, 30 years from now as our county grows in population is very important to preserve our quality of life."
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