AW Stories of the Month

A Dedicated Civil Servant, Looking to Serve at the Level of the Florida House of Representatives

AW: What motivated you to run for FL House of Representatives?

Councilman Willhite:  Serving the Village of Wellington for the last 8 years, I found it to be very rewarding and fulfilling –  making a difference in our community, trying to make it a better community and place for my family and my children. So with the term limits of representative Pafford coinciding with this election and the carryover of Wellington being in house district 86, I felt it was a great opportunity for me to continue my service to public service. So I decided to run for his seat.  I started about two years ago thinking about it and identifying that because of due to term limits, and due to both of us having term limits, I thought it was a good opportunity.  I explored it and I think it’s a great fit. I think right now, besides just being on this end of Wellington, my fire station that I work at is in front of Century Village which is on the other end of the district. So it basically goes from Wellington to Century Village in West Palm Beach. I provide service to those residents every day that I’m at the fire station and I’d like to continue serving them in more than the fashion of just the fire station, but as their elected official as well.

AW: What are some of the factors about your background that make your perspective unique?

Councilman Willhite:  I think I come from a life of public service. As for my family, my mom was a nurse and my dad was a first responder; my aunt is a teacher. Multiple members of my family have been in the military serving our country and our community. So when I got hired at the fire department myself, it was just another facet of that. I wanted to continue serving and I got involved with the fire department and politics a little bit. I found it very intriguing and rewarding, and so I decided to run. There was some interest in Wellington, I lived here, and so I decided to run [for councilman] and I was successful in my first election and subsequently my second election. Being an elected official already, I believe I have some knowledge, some ability to work with everyone to accomplish things for the betterment of our community so I want to continue doing it. And because I have that ability to work with everyone, I’ll bring a unique perspective to House District 86 and make a very beneficial impact on that aspect of our community.

AW: Who are your competitors?

Councilman Willhite:  Qualifying doesn’t happen until June, but for right now there are two Democrats and two Republicans seriously vying for this seat and working towards it. I applaud anybody who will run for public office. I’ve done it twice. It’s very difficult to put yourself out there, to put your family out there in the public and have public scrutiny and questions about what you do and your about your motives. I encourage anyone who’s interested in running to do it. Anybody who will step up and run for the community is an asset to the community because they’re willing to do it.

AW: Where did you live previous to Wellington?

Councilman Willhite:  I was born in Michigan and in 1980 my family moved down here to Lake Worth. We lived there for about 19-20 years. When I met my wife, we moved to Greenacres where we lived for three years. And then we decided when we were going to finally buy a home and start a family, we moved to Wellington. We moved to Wellington because when I met her, she lived in Wellington. She was a graduate of Wellington High School, she was going to college, and her family lived in Wellington, so it was an easy fit for her. It was a little different for me coming from the coast, but I found it to be a very beautiful community. And like most people who come to Wellington, the reason they choose to come here is the quality of life, the parks, and those different benefits. We knew with wanting to start a family, it would partially be about schools and we wanted to give our children the best opportunity for the best education possible. So that’s why we moved here. They go to public school now and we call Wellington our home. That’s why it’s called a great hometown because it’s a great place to start a family. And we’ve become a part of the community.

AW: How did you decide to become a councilman for Wellington?

Councilman Willhite:  Specifically, I had an issue that was going on about some drainage at my home. Then I got more involved in the process of things and decided to join the public safety committee. Then as election seats become open, I decided to run for one. I was successful so I decided to work on some of those issues that brought me to the council and got involved in Wellington. Just recognize that in order to make an impact in your government and your community, you have to be involved. I don’t want to complain to someone or shed blame or tell someone how they’re doing their job or not. Let’s become a part of it and see if we can help them.

AW: What did you learn from your experiences in the Navy, as a firefighter, and as councilman and vice-mayor?

Councilman Willhite:  I think everything you do in life helps bring you to where you are. If you can be a part of multiple aspects of your government your community your family, it gives you a perspective of what some of your constituents are thinking and so whether it’s for military benefits, whether it’s for firefighter injuries or police injuries or public safety injuries, risks that they take, whether it’s having people concerned about something that’s happening in their government, it hopefully makes you a better, more well-rounded person in making decisions when casting your votes. Everything we do in government affects someone’s life somehow. Every time a law is passed, it’s affecting them somehow. To have those experiences has made me a more well-rounded person in understanding the interests of a community and potential constituents of District 86.

Let’s look at Century Village. There are a lot of senior residents there who are veterans. They have senior needs whether it’s transportation, being able to get to the drug store, paying for prescription drugs, paying for health care. When people come to Wellington now as councilman, there are land uses, there are permitting processes, and code enforcement laws. Being able to understand various parts of that helps me able to vote and make the best-educated beneficial outcome for our community.

As a firefighter, [I come from] multiple generations of firefighters. It’s not just a family tradition but we’ve understood it’s a good occupation for providing for your family and also returning to your community. Every day that you go, you’re helping someone. People only dial 911 if they are in need of something, whether it’s their water leaking or their house is on fire or a medical emergency, they need something. Being a part of helping people is ingrained in the fiber of what I do.

AW: What are 3 of your most important issues?

Councilman Willhite: There are things that are important to all of Floridians and there are things that are important for district 86. Things that I’ve been a part of and worked on that I think will benefit all of those are things such as infrastructure, road improvement, bridges, and those different things. We are a growing community, district 86. There is a lot of growth going west. We are going to need the infrastructure to provide for those residents who are here or for future residents. Things such as water supply, water quantity and water quality. Florida has a unique aspect that we’re not allowed to store a lot of water, so we need to make sure we do the best with what we have. We need to provide safe drinking water for all of our residents.

Public safety is very important to me whether it’s police, fire, or different aspects that we provide for our residents to make sure that their needs are met. If someone picks up and dials 911, they need to know they are getting good service provided to them. As I mentioned regarding seniors –  they need to make sure as they are aging, they have a place to live, they have healthcare provided to them and can get to those services that are needed – whether it’s a doctor’s appointment, transportation to doctors’ appointments, prescription drugs, all those different things. Those are important and we need to make sure we give them the best opportunities to be afforded healthcare.

Finally, the next biggest one for me would have to be education. Our future generations need to have the best opportunity to get an education, to strive for whatever they want to become, and know that they’re safe in their schools and that they’re teachers are well taken care of and that their teachers provide the best education for them. Let’ face it, when we send our kids to school every day, we’re expecting that they’re safe, they get a good education, and that they come home good to us. And so, those issues are very important.

AW: I’ve heard complaints about the definition of open space and people questioning whether or not we have the money for new infrastructure.

Councilman Willhite: There’s a balance between paying for infrastructure and the needs of the community. But if people can’t get to their home and their work safely, how are they going to be productive? How are businesses going to grow if people don’t have safe roads to travel on? If it takes them 2 hours to travel to work when it shouldn’t take that long, it doesn’t benefit their job. And so, when I say infrastructure I mean that we need to have the infrastructure grow as well as the growth and development of a community. We can’t grow and develop a community without infrastructure, they need to coincide. So, there needs to be the balance of that. Does there need to be a balance of some open space in a development? Absolutely. There needs to be some sort of – whether its parks, recreational facilities, those different things. Being mindful of the environment; Being mindful of the fact that when you are building, plan for the future. Don’t maximize your capacity now and then in the future when there’s additional growth, there’s not room for that expansion.

There’s a bill that’s introduced right now for teachers who team STEM subjects to have their loans paid off. What is your stance on that?

Councilman Willhite:  I can tell you from my children’s aspect, STEM is very important to them. They find it very interesting and intriguing and it challenges them. It’s a great aspect that they like. I think every teacher should be afforded the opportunity to have their loans paid off and not come out of college and have massive debt. This is for anybody who comes out of college. I mean the starting salary and benefits for teachers and the responsibility they have, there has to be a balance there.

I was just in Tallahassee last week and there were 3000 teachers picketing the state capitol because their concerned about classroom size, the benefits, their pay, security, safety, and all those different things are happening right now. We’re not getting into testing yet, we’re talking common core and standardized testing. How we’re paying teachers increased benefits because their students have better outcomes on standardized tests. I just don’t know how that’s fair. We don’t need to teach the test we need to teach kids and give teachers the ability to teach.

You can’t expect teachers just to teach the test, they have to be able to teach kids. Every kid learns differently, every kid has different interests and if the teacher has to stay on such a track as following this test, kids are going to fall behind. There’s going to be kids that fall through the cracks and that’s not fair because not every kid learns the same and at the same level and at the same rate.

I have a seven and eight year old and I can tell you first hand, they learn differently at things. We need to make sure teachers can teach kids. And that means that they have the ability to teach kids differently, not this standardized test where we are putting every kid into a certain box and saying “You must know these things in order to pass and then continue on with your education.”

AW: As a Dad, what are the most important things you’ve tried to teach your children?  (And how do you think Florida measures up to the rest of the country in terms of education?)

Councilman Willhite:  As a father, I try to afford my kids the opportunity to become whatever they want to do in life. I try and teach them respect, honor, public service, those things that make our community a better place. When it comes to education for them, I help them as much as I can. I’m on the school advisory panel. My wife and I help with the PTA and all the facets of public school that we can to make sure they are afforded the best education that they can get.

I think Florida is lagging behind in education. It’s such a large growing state that it’s amazing how teachers were concerned last week. These are the professionals in the field saying we are not doing the best for them [the students]. It’s not just about money for them. I’m in schools every day. I dropped my kids off this morning. I’m there. I’m seeing how committed they [teachers] are. They are the first ones there and the last ones to leave. They’re telling us there are problems. It’s just like if we had the police telling us they were the problems. It would be just the same if we had law makers telling us that we had problems with our laws. Teachers are telling us there is a problem. We should be listening to them. They’re the subject matter experts in education. They went to school for it, they’re involved in it, they’re doing it. We have to start listening to them more and their needs. Our future generation and the future of the country depend on these kids.

Florida is so diverse. In their ages and their education and so much that goes on. We have to recognize that Florida is such a progressive state and education has to be a part of that.

AW: I know you are active in the community. Which networks and associations have been most valuable to be a member of?

Councilman Willhite:  I sit on the Metropolitan Planning Organization (the MPO), I sit on the Water Resource Task Force and my sons’ school advisory council. These are a diverse group and they are every beneficial to district 86 and our entire community. Water, infrastructure, transportation, public education, working for the fire department, those are some of my top interests. But I think as umbrella to this district, they’re important, because there are so many groups stemming from Century Village to Royal Palm Beach. We go from seniors to families, hard-working people who are trying to do the best for their family, and so those groups that I’m involved in and those things that I participate in, I think are important. I think they affect people and I am trying to effect positive change because they do affect so many people.

I would say one of the most rewarding organizations I’ve been a part of, individually, is [Honor flights]. I’ve been a guardian for six Honor Flights. It’s an organization that takes WWII veterans to Washington DC and recognizes their efforts and their sacrifices for our military during WWII. Individually, that’s probably the most rewarding because I get to see, help, and thank people that before me, fought for this country that afford me the opportunities I have today. Their sacrifice helped ensure democracy in this country that allows you and I to sit here and talk today and allows us to print the paper about our thoughts and views. So again, taking six of those veterans, seeing them and their families, recognizing them for their efforts, is individually, personally rewarding. It’s a good organization, it really is; a non-profit organization. The veteran pays for nothing. The guardian pays for the flight. The veteran doesn’t pay for anything and so it’s a way to recognize them and thank them.

AW: Why is it important for a business or individual to give back to their community?

Councilman Willhite:  Everyone has to give to their community somehow whether they’re a baseball coach or whether they’re business provides a service to the needs of the community.  That’s what’s made western communities so good. They work together so well. They do many things that benefit their residents. We have to look at is how we impact someone else. A business owner does that too, I think. What is the service they’re providing? What is the level of service that they provide? Are the people happy and do they return? Is there a need in the community for those things?

I think everyone doing their part makes us a better community.

AW: What sets you apart from other candidates?

Councilman Willhite:  The opportunities and things I’ve been involved in: representing in an elected capacity for the last eight years for the village of Wellington residents, being involved in the process, not only in Wellington, Palm Beach County, but Tallahassee for about the last 17-18 years [sets me apart]. Going to Tallahassee, advocating for interest needs of this community, I think gives me a unique perspective that I think I can step into this job on day one and have an understanding about how the process is and how it works. Again, I applaud anyone who wants to participate in any form of government or run, it’s just at what point have they been involved, and how much.

AW: Tell us about your family.

Councilman Willhite:  I have a beautiful wife. She works for Palm Beach County in the engineering department. She’s been working for the county about 15 years. Her name is Alexis. I have an eight year old son, Luke, who’s in 3^rd grade. I have a seven year old, Mark, who’s in 1^st grade. Two boys, they’re best friends but they fight like anything because they have such a good friendship, together. My mom lives in Wellington, as well. She lives over in Wellington Walk. My dad died about eight years ago so that’s my amount of family down here. The rest of my family is in Michigan.

I talk to my mom two to three times a day. My wife and I work every day to make the best life we can for our kids and we’re just doing what every hard-working American is doing. We’re giving back to our community, being involved and trying to live the American dream.