J. Lee Vause, a 20-year Leon County commissioner whom former colleagues described as a transformative leader, died May 12. He was 87.
Vause’s time on the commission, which included eight years as chair, was when Leon County was emerging from its cocoon as “a small sleepy southern town into a robust community,” said former state Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee.
Montford served on the county commission in the 1980s when Vause was chair and the commission voted to build what is now called the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, the LeRoy Collins Public Library, a new courthouse and jail.
“All that’s Lee Vause. Some of the rest of us came and went, but old Lee was there, with a steady hand on the wheel when we were changing drastically in this community and this state. He had a steady hand, and we all trusted him,” Montford said.
Vause was a 34-year-old real estate agent and Leon High School graduate who challenged the legendary Tom Brown for the District 5 seat in 1972. (Tom Brown Park is named after him.)
Brown was seeking a fifth term, but Vause forced him into a runoff. The general election’s main issues were whether to consolidate city and county governments – Brown was in support, Vause opposed – and whether the county should start a road department and air condition the county jail’s cell block. Vause favored both.
He defeated Brown and went on to serve for two decades, mentoring a generation of county staff and former commissioners. Today, J. Lee Vause Park on the shores of Lake Jackson is named after him, perhaps the most popular park in the county for picnics and gatherings.
“It will be difficult to find anyone to say a bad thing about Lee Vause. He was a relationship person. He set the standard as a local elected official,” Leon County Administrator Vince Long said.
Long was hired as a junior staffer in Vause’s last year in office but got to know him through the years. Vause was a gentleman who valued collegiality and respect for others, he said. He set the bar for how an elected official should treat others, Long said.
Former County Commissioner Gary Yordon said early in his first term he found out how important collegiality was to Vause.
Yordon had blindsided the commission with a media stunt. To protest a policy that allowed clear cutting of trees, Yordon stood in front of bulldozers to block the start of construction of a plaza at the corner of Park Avenue and Capital Circle.
The media descended on the other commissioners for reaction and Vause went looking for Yordon. Vause had voted for the county’s first tree ordinance and its first canopy road ordinance but didn’t appreciate Yordon’s grandstanding.
“Lee came into my office and slammed the door so hard, two pictures literally fell off the wall. And he said, ‘you don’t catch your (fellow) commissioners by surprise. That’s not the way to get things done. If you got an idea, you bring it to the table and you get the votes. You don’t surprise us with a stunt,’ ” Yordon said.
Yordon said he never again held a news conference or media event without first letting the other commissioners know. “He believed in a collegial body above all else. We could not have been more different in the way we viewed the universe, but we were great friends,” Yordon said.
When he announced in 1991 that he would not seek another term, Vause reflected on his time in office. When first elected, Leon County had no building inspections or environmental restrictions, the county had outgrown its courthouse, and the public library was a joint operation with Jefferson and Wakulla counties.
All that changed during the time Vause served on the commission. “You can see his fingerprints all over this community, everywhere,” Montford said.
As he prepared to leave office, Vause told the Democrat, “In 1972 the theme of my campaign was ‘He Cares.’ I hope that when I’m gone, enough people will say I did care. And one other thing: I don’t think anybody, whether they agreed with my decisions or disagreed with them, ever wondered where I was at.”
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James Call can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com and is on X as @CallTallahassee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Remembering J. Lee Vause: The ‘steady hand’ that guided Leon County’s growth
Reporting by James Call, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
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