Pensacola’s mayoral race has six candidates running for the seat currently filled by incumbent D.C. Reeves. The information below was completed solely by the candidate at the request of the Pensacola News Journal and appears unedited.
IF A CANDIDATE DID NOT RETURN A QUESTIONNAIRE BY DEADLINE, THEIR Q&A WAS NOT PUBLISHED.
Name: Jermaine J. Williams
Office you’re seeking: Mayor of Pensacola
Occupation: Certified Recovery Peer Specialist
Education: Some College
Why are you running for this office?
I ran because I couldn’t sit back and watch anymore. I’m a Certified Recovery Peer Specialist working in addiction, mental health, and suicide prevention, and the outcomes in my work are life and death. I carry that with me every day. I was recently named National Peer Specialist of the Year by the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, an honor I earned by living inside Pensacola’s hardest problems and building solutions from the ground up. Housing, behavioral health, displacement, kids without a clear path forward. These problems have outlived every administration that’s tried to fix them. I couldn’t keep watching people in this city suffer while nothing changed.
What experience do you have that makes you qualified for this office?
I don’t have a political career behind me, or the usual list of connections. What I have is the work, years spent sitting across from Pensacola residents in their hardest moments, taking federal policy, state funding, and community resources and turning them into real outcomes in real neighborhoods. That’s the same skill governing requires: seeing a problem clearly, building a solution, funding it strategically, and delivering results people can actually feel. I’ve spent my career doing exactly that. As Mayor, the work stays the same. Only the scale changes.
In your view, what is the role of city government?
City government exists to serve people. Too often it settles for just managing process instead. There’s no such thing as someone else’s problem in this city. When the people driving Pensacola’s economy get priced out of it, the businesses that depend on them feel it too. Government’s job is to see that connection clearly and govern accordingly: provide the basics like roads, safety, and infrastructure, while removing the barriers that keep residents from thriving. Growth and stability can exist together. Making sure this city gets both, for everyone, is the job.
What is your position on the statewide property tax referendum and if it passes how would you address the reduction in revenue?
That decision belongs to voters. My job is making sure this city stays financially sound after they decide. Two pillars of my platform were built without touching the general fund. Pensacola Directed Care runs on Medicaid billing and opioid settlement dollars, and it reduces the EMS and law enforcement mental health calls this amendment puts at risk. Youth programming launches through reallocating the existing Parks budget, with no new revenue required. Whichever way voters decide, my administration will be ready for it.
What do you think the city should do to address housing affordability?
Pensacola renters spend 37 cents of every dollar they earn on housing. The affordability threshold is 30 cents. Fixing this means working on supply and protection at the same time. On supply, I’ll build ten mixed-income workforce buildings in underutilized corridors, financed through CDFI loans and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, with no general fund exposure. On protection, the Roots Program keeps longtime homeowners from being priced out through free counseling, zero-interest deferred tax payment plans, and a voluntary community land trust option at full market value. Building new housing only helps if we also protect the values of those who are already here.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Jermaine J. Williams for Mayor of Pensacola Q&A
Reporting by Jermaine J. Williams, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jermaine J. Williams, Pensacola News Journal | USA TODAY Network
