TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Highlands Today

Cool Not Running For Highlands County Commissioner

ADVERTISEMENT

By Jim  Konkoly | Highlands Today

Published: June 16, 2008

Updated: 06/16/2008 04:12 pm

SEBRING — Carl Cool announced Monday that he has dropped plans to run for the Highlands County Commission seat held by incumbent Republican Barbara Stewart.

Cool, who retired May 31 after 17 years as the county's administrator, said three political issues cropped up after he announced he would run, two of which he had not anticipated.

Those three issues could have been effectively addressed in a longer political campaign, Cool said, but not in the short time between now and Aug. 26, when he would have had to square off with Stewart in the Republican primary election.

Rather than run a political campaign that might fail because of unresolved issues, Cool said, he decided to drop out immediately.

The first issue, he said, was that some voters would not feel comfortable with a person jumping immediately into the county's top electoral position after being the county's highest appointed position for 17 years.

"Another concern was that some people thought that as a commissioner, that might make things hard for the new administrator, Michael Wright," Cool said. Cool added he would have never looked over Wright's shoulder, but people might assume that would be the natural thing to do, since Wright took Cool's old job and Cool, as a commissioner, would be Wright's boss.

Finally, Cool said, friends and advisors told him that some voters would be concerned about Cool being not just a "double dipper" but the county's first ever "triple dipper" if he were elected county commissioner.

Cool has already collected his full county pension, began working as a Realtor with RE/MAX PLUS Realty in Sebring, where his wife Maureen is a Realtor, and would collect a third paycheck, of about $45,000 annually, if he were elected county commissioner.

Running for county commissioner "seemed like a good idea at the time," he said.
"But after thinking and talking with some folks, I made the decision that I'm not going to run."

Cool said he will definitely work a new job during his retirement from Highlands County, for which he worked a total of 33 years, but he's not sure if he will concentrate on selling real estate or working as a licensed engineer.

"I have options as a Realtor and I have options as an engineer, and that's where I plan to go and put my focus on, one of the two," he said.

Cool decided early Monday morning that he would announce he wouldn't run for the county commission, but he didn't publicly announce it until early Monday afternoon.

During the morning, Cool said, he made numerous phone calls to inform people who supported him, with promises of campaign dollars and/or support, so that they would hear it from him first and not from a news organization's web site.

Cool said he appreciated friends and supporters who told him of the three political issues which would be hard to deal with effectively in a campaign that only runs from this week through the Aug. 26 Republican primary.

"They were honest enough with me to share with me that these issues are real political issues and they could not be dealt with in the time allotted," Cool said. "And I appreciate their honesty and sharing their thoughts with me."

Rumors circulated throughout Monday morning that Cool would pull out of the commissioner's race. One rumor running the political grapevine was that Bruce Van Jaarsveld, who retired recently as the county's road and bridge superintendent, was going to be Cool's campaign manager.
Cool said that was not the case.

"Bruce Van Jaarsveld offered to work for me in the Lake Placid area if I decided to run," Cool said. "Bruce is a former county employee but, more importantly, he's also a great personal friend. But I never talked with anybody about being my campaign manager."

Cool will turn 59 later this year. He was asked if, four years from now at age 63, he might run for county commissioner.

"At this point," Cool answered, "I'm not really making any future plans, other than to get busy with the engineering and the real estate stuff."

"Nothing is impossible. But I'm not even thinking about that," he added.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT