Milton Mayor Heather Lindsay has qualified to run for a third four-year term in the seat she has held since 2018.
She will have competition. Howard Steele, a frequent Lindsay critic who failed last year in an effort to sue the mayor for what he believed to have been Sunshine Law violations, has also qualified to run for mayor.
Steele presently serves as a member of the Santa Rosa County Planning Board.
The mayoral race is one of only two contests on the ballot this municipal election cycle. Four Milton City Council seats were up for grabs this year — Seat 1 in Wards 1, 2, 3 and 4 — however three of the incumbents made it through the qualification period without drawing a challenger.
Who qualified for Milton municipal election
Milton mayor
Council Seat One, Ward 1
Council Seat One, Ward 2
Council Seat One, Ward 3
Council Seat One, Ward 4
Milton City Council has just one race in Ward 4
The race for Seat 1 in the city’s Ward 4 will pit Shari Sebastiao, who has served twice as an appointed council member, against newcomer Makayla Charles.
Ashlee Fretwell, who was elected as part of a historic Nov. 5, 2024, vote that saw four incumbents removed from Milton office, has opted not to seek reelection. She had beaten Sebastiao for the right to serve the final two years of Jason Vance, who in 2022 decided to leave the council.
Mike Cusack, Marilynn Farrow and Gavin Hawthorne, all elected for the first time in 2022, were each given their second four year terms when no one stepped up to qualify to run against them. Qualifying for the four city council seats and mayor’s position ended Aug. 10 at noon.
Cusack serves in the Ward 1, Seat 1 seat; Farrow holds the Ward 2, Seat 1 seat; and Hawthorne the Ward 3, Seat 1 seat.
The city is run by an eight-member City Council with the mayor presiding over the meeting and acting as a voting member only in the case of a 4-4 deadlock vote.
Tom McLaughlin covers Santa Rosa County, environmental stories, development and investigative reporting.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: 3 of 4 Milton Council races already over. Battle for mayor just beginning
Reporting by Tom McLaughlin, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Tom McLaughlin, Pensacola News Journal | USA TODAY Network
