DECISION DAY: Incumbents, candidates share their closing arguments ahead of Jan. 31 election

Most of the campaigning is done and local and GOP presidential candidates are awaiting the polls to close at 7 p.m.

Here is a brief bio of the six candidates vying for four seats on the Destin City Council and a look into their final thoughts before voters choose who will represent the city during the next four years. The candidates include incumbents, Sandy Trammell, Tom Weidenhamer and Jim Wood, as well as challengers Tuffy Dixon, Cyron Marler and Scott “Sky” Monteith.

Here is what the candidates had to say in their own words.

Tuffy Dixon has been a lifelong resident of Destin. He became a firefighter with the Destin Fire Control District in 1976 and served as the Fire Chief for over 19 years retiring in 2009 with over 33 years of service to the citizens of Destin. He is currently employed in a part-time position with the Florida State Fire Marshall’s Office/Florida State Fire College as a Safety Field Representative.

Cyron Marler was born and raised in Destin and has lived in Destin all of his 54 years and served on city council from 2000-2008. He serves on the Public Works/Safety Committee for the past eight years. Marler volunteers annually for Destin’s Christmas programs, Founder’s Day and Memorial Day ceremonies and is a fourth generation Destinite and his family is one of the founding families in Destin.

Scott “Sky” Monteith has been a Destin resident since 1995, and he has traveled the world and never has a place “enchanted” him like the “Jewel of the Emerald Coast. I know, the Lord has blessed me and Destin and I pray that it continues to be so.” He recently parted ways with the local Libertarian Party over his views about casinos.

Sandy Trammell is a retired educator (30 years) and has lived in Destin since 1973 when she married her husband Karl, a Destin native.  Trammell and her husband have raised two children who both live and work in the city of Destin. I have a Master's Degree in Educational Leadership, co-own and operate businesses in Destin, and currently serve on the board of Destin Water Users, Destin City Council, Chair of the Destin Community Redevelopment Agency Board, Mayor Pro-tem of Destin, among others. 

Tom Weidenhamer and his wife Nancy became homeowners and business owners in Destin in 1990 and have owned and operated SOS Printing in Destin for over 21 years. Prior to his election to Destin City Council in 2008, he served on several city committees and charitable boards for many years. During the past year or so, he worked with fellow council members, city staff, his wife Nancy and other volunteers to raise funds to plan and build the Destin Dog Park.

Jim Wood began his service to the community with a 20-year Army career where he served in both peacetime and conflict (Desert Storm 1991), retiring in 2004 having attained the rank of lieutenant colonel and the Legion of Merit and Bronze Star. He has been on the Destin City Council for the last four years, is the president of the Sandestin Lions Club, and chairperson for the Okaloosa/Walton Transportation Planning Organization. He said he works “to make our community a better place for all of our residents, businesses and visitors to live, work and play.”    

Last year there were a number of visioning sessions for the city of Destin. Describe your ideal vision for how Destin looks and feels in 2020?

Dixon: My hope is that our citizens are healthy, happy, and prosperous and can put their trust in their elected city council to do the right things. I hope that our beaches will be wide and white without “no trespassing” signs. I hope that Norreigo Point is stabilized in a manner that would be functional and aesthetically pleasing. I hope that our harbor boardwalk will be a place our residents and visitors can bring their families to enjoy. I hope that the east to west corridor is complete to allow our residents to travel easier throughout the city. And I hope that with the continued growth of our city, we still remember its history and honor the families and the fishing industry that founded this beautiful place we call home.

Marler: I see our harbor walk completed with shops, restaurants and family things to do from the bridge to Harbor Docks and as I have said “it is not a place to see but it is the place to be.” I also see a permanent solution to Norriego Point, which will help keep our harbor active, and I see our beaches rebuilt and lots of tourists coming to Destin and enjoying all we have to offer.

Monteith: I hope to see growth — growth in our economy and families. Enough that by then we have our own high school and police department. All the shops are full and flourishing once again. Projects such as Norriego Point, the parking garage, and the Airport Road extension are completed.

Trammell: I see a larger family-oriented Destin that has technical infrastructure in place attracting additional high paying businesses with housing allowing them to live close to their jobs. The harbor boardwalk has become an area for our residents and tourists alike to enjoy a wide variety of activities. Norriego Point has been stabilized. We are recognized as a "Clean City" with "Clean Marinas" demonstrating to all our love and respect for our beautiful environment. We have made tremendous progress with our multimodal initiative and our alternate corridor through Destin is nearing completion. 

Weidenhamer: There’s a completely revitalized harbor area with a vibrant boardwalk and a festive marketplace attracting many tourists to the central area of Destin, a protected Norriego Point providing for safe ingress and egress to the harbor for the fishing fleet, parking lots or parking structures sufficient to accommodate the increased harbor area tourism, a completed Azalea Corridor providing for complete off Hwy. 98 passage through Destin for our local residents.

Wood: My vision for 2020 is a fiscally responsible government that truly represents the will of our residents and businesses that ensures open and transparent government for all and a government that focuses efforts on safety, security issues along with natural disaster mitigation, while also focusing on a long-term plan that ensures healthy beaches and East Pass dredging. We would be a walkable community and the city would have completed annexation of all properties east of Destin to finally make the city whole. There would also be well thought out, appropriately coordinated fishing regulations and possibly a Destin high school, if feasible.

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With one of your last chances to address the voting public, what would you say to the citizens of Destin who have the final say in whether or not you are elected?

Dixon: A few years back I came across these words. “We elect fellow citizens on our behalf, we give them the legal and moral authority to act on our behalf, and we depend on their integrity to represent us with dignity and honor.” Given the honor of being elected, I will always remember these words and never forget or take for granted the citizens that elected me. My vow would be to listen to anyone’s concerns and to establish citizen committees to provide feedback on issues of major importance. During my 19-plus years as fire chief, I worked closely with our citizens and the business community in an effort to provide the best emergency services possible.

Marler: During the 8 years I served the citizens of Destin as your council member, I tried to do the best I could for all of Destin. I hope my record speaks for itself. I have, and if elected again, will do my best to give back to our city and its citizens. I believe in honesty, integrity, and above all serving the citizens of Destin. I will listen to your concerns and try my best to be what you the citizens want in your city — yes, your city.

Monteith: I don’t think we as Destin residents are getting our entire “bang for our buck.” With growth comes responsibility, which isn’t always the easy way. I’m not satisfied; therefore I answered the challenge of “then you do it.”  So here I am, let’s do it.

Trammell: Having the honor of serving as a Destin city councilor for the past four years I have actively worked to solve each issue through consensus building with any and all involved. I plan to continue serving on city, county and regional committees to ensure Destin is a beneficiary.  I will continue to work to keep our tax base low and work within the current funding to establish a budget that maintains our current level of services while using every resource to acquire funding to enhance our quality of life. As part of Team Destin, I will continue to see that Norriego Point is stabilized, beaches renourished where needed while protecting our biggest industries; Tourism and Fishing. Working to empower our volunteers to be able to actively set goals and participate in the achievement of those goals is a personal endeavor of mine.

Weidenhamer: One of my primary missions during the past four years of service on the Destin city council has been to protect and improve the quality of life for the permanent residents. To help carry out this mission, I worked with the Destin Dog Park. I am also in favor or the restoration of our beaches for those who want it to protect existing upland building structures and infrastructure, especially on Holiday Isle, in order to maintain tourist interest in our city because of the beaches available to them. My years of experience help me approach the solution to a variety of situations and to work effectively and harmoniously with others to achieve a good end result.

Wood: I would like to thank you for giving me an opportunity to serve for the last four years. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as well as a tremendous responsibility to represent my fellow citizens. I hope I am able to serve for another term.  I promise to serve to the best of my ability ensuring common sense, honest and responsible government.  Government of, by and for the people places the responsibility squarely on voters to make a choice.