Latest / Palafox Media Network / Dominique Douglas Talks About Change Needeed in Local Politics
Transcript
- speaker-1: Hello folks and welcome to the Meet the Candidate version here with the Policometrics News. I am joined today with Dominique Douglas who is running for ⁓ some office in Altamont Springs, Florida. Dominique, why don't just tell everybody where, first of all, is where Altamont Springs is and then why you're running and what got you involved in this rat race. speaker-0: What doesn't these days? So hi. Yes, I live in Altamont Springs and I'm actually running for city commissioner. ⁓ Altamont is Orlando, ⁓ Disney World Orlando, city of Orlando. The suburbs right outside of it. So it probably takes about 12 minutes really to get into the middle of downtown Orlando. speaker-1: Very true. Okay. Okay. And so what got you into a wing to run for this race? speaker-0: Uh, even though it's probably big politics that gets the country's attention, right? It's like the presidential race and things like that. I think when you learn about and you pay attention to what's going on in your community, you find out it's the local races actually that hold a lot more immediate impact on your life than anything the president's talking about. speaker-1: It's kind of like what Tip O'Neill used to say, our politics is local. speaker-0: Right. It's at least where the of what's going to impact your life ⁓ happening. And know, our races are every two years. ⁓ if one thing Ultimont Springs, I'm originally like, raised, I was born in Buffalo, New York, but I was raised in Greece, New York, which is by Rochester. And if I've never experienced this before, to move from a city, a town, a community to the South, I mean, this is upstate New York, to the South and find the same town. I mean, the same town in that the same community, it's majority working class, majority families whose kids are still K through 12. It's people whose Monday through Friday is similar to one another. And so that means what their issues are is probably similar to one another. And that same community dynamic works here. I really love though that Altamont, when I first got here about 11 years ago, 12 years ago, when moved to Altamont, me and my daughter, it was still like, it was beautiful. I liked it because I'm not in the city. I'm outside of the city, so it's the suburbs, but everything you need is there. We have a speaker-1: Right? speaker-0: amazing mall surrounded by every shopping plaza, restaurant, small shop that you can think of. You know what I mean? It's an Altamont and they care a lot about the aesthetic beauty. So there's parks everywhere. I mean, the city really ⁓ makes that I don't know. I feel like if you dress better, you look better, you feel better. Well, when you walk outside your neighborhood and it looks good, You want to take care of it more and invest in it more. I want to stay here. One big thing. My generation and the previous ones, they can grow up in a place and then they go to college and they leave. They never come back. That college degree, that vocational training, whatever it is you got, you don't bring that back home. But Altamont is a place where you're actually really excited to be like, okay, I want to raise my kids here. And I them to start working at public. So when they're 16 here and you know, speaker-1: Exactly. speaker-0: And those are similar things. speaker-1: Exactly. And so tell us a little bit about you. mean, you know, who is Dominique? What do you bring to the table? speaker-0: Dominique is I think more likely the neighbor like everybody else, right? So I have my mom groups and like my daughter just turned 13 on Wednesday. I'm shocked to be able to- Yeah, I only have one. So everything that happens is a big deal. Every single thing she does. But during birthday parties, one of the things is all the moms come together, all the parents really hang out and the kids go do their own thing. That's an awesome time to get to hear about what's going on in all these other people's lives. We're out of high school, we're out of college, and we've dispersed across Seminole County and a lot of us in Ultima. And I really get to realize that I'm just like, The same things I'm dealing with wanting to start a business, instance, same stuff everybody else is dealing with. And I think to have a younger stepping in now into local government and to seeing where the future of is going is like the greatest thing that we can do. And that's where my passion lies personally. It's exciting to me to know that. Maybe the dream was that you go to college, you get your degree, you graduate, you buy your white picket fence house, get married, have two and a half kids, retire at 65 and you'll get all the money and you can serve. speaker-1: Right, it doesn't work anymore. speaker-0: No, and we had to come. And I think that the reality we came into wasn't as dark and gloomy as maybe everyone seems to make it out to be. It's exciting. It's full of. speaker-1: in 2026. It is. There's a lot of opportunity. I mean, right now in this race, I think you have an incumbent you're running against right now. Is that correct? speaker-0: Now I don't believe he's filed. speaker-1: Okay. Sorry. Yeah, I think right now you're the one who's filed. And so do you know if they're gonna be running at all or have you had any communication with them at all or? speaker-0: I did. I got to meet with them. We had some lunch or dinner actually, because it was after I got a four works. And, know, there was some talk about there's three open seats right now, two city commissioner and the mayor. So there was talk about like who was running for what race. And so I wanted to just meet with him one on one and ask, what's your thoughts? What are you thinking of? And he was saying that he's like 80, 90 percent sure he actually wants to rerun for his position. So we got to talking about things that he felt were big and important and like relevant in the city, because he's been in the seat for a while. He's been in municipality work for a while, but he himself pointed out even in that conversation that the look of local leadership for Altamont Springs hasn't looked any different for as long as Altamont. speaker-1: But the community has. The community has changed a lot over the last... speaker-0: said the community does not look the way it did before. He said the community looks like you. It looks like someone who probably has a nine to five job, right? Monday through Friday, like I do, but who wants to start a small business, who has a small family, who still has to be able to see progress where they live. Right. And he's like, that perspective would be really nice to have joining local government. It's really think this double thing he's like, yeah, probably going to be running again, but also we need some new faces. speaker-1: Exactly. That's interesting because I know there's awesome and scuttlebutt out there, but you possibly ring from there. So is that card on the table anymore or? speaker-0: Uh, I hadn't thought about it, but he mentioned it to you while we were talking. So I'm just gonna, I think when I ran last time, I realized the proper way to do things is to go to the person each time and have a discussion. So when I can reach out and talk to, uh, the mayor to anyone else that I had heard was already planning on running or might, no one has filed for that one either. So, um, it definitely became a thought. speaker-1: Right, so is it so-and-so thought or? speaker-0: It's still a thought until I talk with the current leadership local elected officials. speaker-1: Thank Okay. Yeah. And now is this your first time? And now you said you ran before. So what did you run for before whenever? speaker-0: So two years ago, I ran for House District 38. So that's, I jumped into that race. There was a lot going on. ⁓ ⁓ was a lot going on that year. ⁓ Finished my first year of law school ⁓ I was trying to decide if that was actually a route for me. I've got kind of a go-getter personality. as you're law, you're thinking, is it better to argue law? speaker-1: Okay. That's a very deep water race. ⁓ there it speaker-0: it better to ⁓ law? No, I think it's better to like fight for it, create it, legislate it, you know? That year after ⁓ that there was this massacre in Buffalo, where I'm from, and two of my family members were killed in that top shooting. ⁓ And so lot of us got to go to ⁓ DC, and got to go sit in front of Congress, we got to sit in front of the House. That was one of the first moments that hit me. that I meet people every day who are more intelligent than the ones making decisions. United States government, I was like, I totally bet people that could probably decipher, break this down and find a more amicable solution than you guys. It's kind of like you don't even want to. It's such a big level. I thought. speaker-1: ⁓ they are. reason many of them are raising money, I'm not creating a solution. speaker-0: I mean, it's kind of like, y'all don't want to find it. So this is a little big for me. Let me go home and let me see what I can do at home where I live, where my daughter will grow up, where all of my friends are, my nieces and nephews. And I had a lot of people behind me at that time, a lot of mentors and like different lawyers I had done my internships under. And they were like, jump in the race. We're taking you to tele-hastier. And I was like, you know what? They said, Dominique, are you going to keep prying? Are you gonna step up? Are you gonna do something? You're smart enough to learn how to do it. If you went up there and saw them, can really, if you decide to jump in ⁓ make some changes, if you think it's for the betterment of the majority of the populace who wants it. speaker-1: I think the whole idea of being a public servant is serving the public and the whole idea of combining the community leadership that is leading their community. mean, there's a lot of public servants who just don't want to be leaders and there's a lot of leaders who don't want to be public servants. And really have to have an ability to do both with the humility thrown in there in the mix. And throwing in there and replacing all the hubris with it is a very ⁓ difficult thing do. A lot of people... Yeah, are not doing it to the same degree I see I see that a lot with the a lot of the incumbents in the offices that either the local level they get so complacent and so used to just checking a box and stamping a envelope or Stamping the paper here moving to the next project and saying here we need some more money here We need some more money now realizing that accountability is a huge part of it The lack of accountability is reason why we're in this situation right now speaker-0: Yes, when I was running for house, that was really a huge thing. ⁓ when I had a primary, so I didn't win the primary ⁓ I thought there's still more to do. Maybe that was in my mind. Maybe that was still too big of a level jumping in there last minute and not ⁓ this time to prepare. ⁓ speaker-1: I it one time. I lost badly. ⁓ speaker-0: You jumped in and you know that's something a lot of can't f***ing speaker-1: Yeah, it's back in 2010, I guess, and jumped in. I was already elected official for our solar water board in this Canberra county. And so I figured, know, you know, my dad was the chairman of the utility board and everything. So we had a political pedigree family, but, know, we said we'd jump in and see what happened. But ⁓ actually, I'm very good friends with the guy who beat me. And it's a very long story, which I will not talk about on camera. But I understand that jumping in just implying we is very is very difficult and very hard i mean people don't realize all the lobbying groups are the government relation groups are the different areas of your opponents and seeing how to nix that or overcome that or to achieve ⁓ your communication plan above and beyond that whenever your resources are or thin and that's a very hard part to do in a sound to say house race i mean Florida has a lot of very competitive districts all throughout the state and people don't realize how much money is going through all these races. speaker-0: There was a town hall we had and I think someone had came in. Now this was probably two months ago. So before lots of people have filed and this one gentleman had filed and he was like, yeah, you know, we've been fundraising. We've, we've only got about 780,000 and up. Let me tell you when last time I ran two years ago. Okay. I think my totality of my city commissioner run was 500 bucks. of all the money I raised. was very grassroots, very texting everyone $10, $10, $10, $10. And it was just to pay for like materials and signage for people to hand out. I felt my mouth could talk and it was free. So I could go places and I could talk to people and it was the easiest thing. As a of fact, I got a lot farther when I ran for city commissioner than I did for house. I think the R and the D. Right? It puts this barriers up and speaker-1: Yes, we have psychological fundraising barriers. speaker-0: Right. It's a filter that in reality does not actually exist the table. My daughter goes to volleyball. She's on volleyball league. I promise all of us in that room ⁓ go for different people or similar people. But when we're in there you would never know. So. speaker-1: Exactly, has the same issues apply, the same ⁓ consequences of life, the same happiness of life. mean, it's all a universal thing and ⁓ people just keep on stereotyping everything with party lines and party affiliations which put all these barriers in the head for fundraising as well as voting. speaker-0: And you know, party, the parties made it become something that you kind of like want to take away from all of a sudden. Now you don't get speaker-1: They're doing it for fundraising reasons. speaker-0: Yeah. I'm just like, I want to kind of run. really enjoyed running city because it was nonpartisan. Right. And everyone would talk to me. ⁓ one. mean, in every but I was talking to people in public trying to get sushi on Wednesday because it's only five jobs. I almost all of the sushi because I got stuck. I wear my shirt everywhere running from office. ⁓ Come to me. I almost out of all the sushi. But I really enjoyed. speaker-1: I will see you soon. speaker-0: everyone's openness their ability to talk to me because I look just like their neighbor. ⁓ look just like their friend that they go to the birthday parties with. I look just like, you know, the one in the run group who's always texting, I'm going to make it in the morning and then doesn't come. ⁓ like that person. ⁓ everybody can relate to that. And so they'll come and tell me they'll be honest. They'll talk about, you know, we really want to be able to have run club on our side, but there's no lights on the streets, you know. And then educating people, who do you go to for these problems you have? Because there is a lot of confusion. When you ask people and what their elected position actually allots them. speaker-1: Right. That's the big question is what are the like top two or three issues that you see facing the city that a city commissioner can actually fix that you would like to fix? speaker-0: One thing is that I realize about city commissioners, it's very specific to your city. speaker-1: Is it at large or just the district? Again, is it at large or is it just your district that you're really working with? At large. Okay, the whole thing. Yeah. speaker-0: Say that again. and it's just the important. Yeah, so the whole city gets to vote for me, even though I'm district for. for everybody in ⁓ city. So. I think that 1 of the things that we talk about is what can you actually ask of me that matters 1 thing I know you can ask of me is. Altmark as a special city is almost 50%. Renters and owners. speaker-1: Okay. speaker-0: their problems are real, very, very, very different. ⁓ up and my parents and my grandparents all in houses. We had neighborhoods and they own those houses for like 30 years. Millennials graduates, the housing market crashes. We're in apartments, okay? Everybody's got a condo and apartment. But so where I live, I've stayed here a long time. Like I'll live in apartment for 11 years now. But my neighbors, I have had a tremendous amount of neighbors and it never occurred to me growing up in a house how different the experiences for people are moving around because the rent is going up in this house and this apartment complex so much families have to move out all of sudden. You know, when you're a renter, you have to move with first, last and security some magic way. ⁓ One time. speaker-1: a renter. speaker-0: It's much easier to go to a bank and ask for hundred and fifty thousand dollar loan and put down the money for mortgage and ask for less money, an FHA loan and get rent, help insurer help with down payment assistance and get a house than it is for me to move to another apartment. speaker-1: Wow. So you have different challenges and different things that everybody's facing. Right now with the property tax bill being on the table here for the amendment this coming ⁓ November election, it's most likely probably going to pass. And if that were to happen, then what's the property tax revenue decrease going to do to Altamont Springs? Because whenever you have a community where only half the people are paying property taxes, speaker-0: for us. speaker-1: I mean it's going to take a very big chunk in the funding. speaker-0: I was talking during that meeting with the current city commissioner sitting in my seat and I asked him, you know, as someone who's coming in and wants to be a part of her city and wants to have an impact and understand the significance of these big things, because like I said, depending on who you are, your perspective is different. I have family members who are going to lose their home over $10,000 in property taxes. And for a lot of minorities, that's like, the last of the land your generations have left and you're about to lose it because the older ones have passed on the new ones aren't paying attention honestly or the grandparents passed on leave it to the kids they do not have money to catch up on. You know what I mean? Grandma died and now I've got a phone call in Florida saying and you know who's supposed to be able to save it so to be able to remove that. speaker-1: That's true, yeah. It's just gonna be good for them. speaker-0: and still find ways to build upon it and find a way to produce some economic money for yourself using that you own is the American dream, right? deuce. side. ⁓ speaker-1: ⁓ yeah. Exactly. is a flip side to that because speaker-0: to Bob and he's like, yeah, Altamont, as I said, is different. We're almost 50-50 renters and ⁓ but we're almost 50-50 residential commercial. So we do have enough tax revenue in the city to keep the functions of the city, the emergency organizations and police and the fire department and things there, but we'll lose public libraries, but we'll lose some of the ⁓ free. after our recreation programs for kids at the civic centers will maybe have to charge rent to rent the pavilions at the parks now instead of having first come first serve, get up early in the morning and race there. You know what I mean? It's gonna have to be a cut somewhere. So as much as it's saving, I don't know, there's always gonna be a downside. And other part, government isn't supposed to fix everything. Just allow the resources to do it if the community chooses to. speaker-1: I agree. think a biggest part of a lot of these local governments are a lot them are getting in the way of the people figuring it out. They're under just allow opportunities and provide opportunities by either, you know, lowering regulations or making sure the regulations are done the right manner to whether or not put a small businesses on hold or strangling them. And that's one thing people on the right side. speaker-0: have an impact. speaker-1: always like to say a lot of my friends are conservatives is like, you know, just deregulate everything. I'm like, there's a way to regulate and deregulate properly. mean, some things need to be regulated. There's a reason. ⁓ like a screen, a screen printing places, ⁓ know, people that have a lot of environmental waste, ⁓ fast food restaurants and your mom and pop restaurants, everything else. And I mean, there's a lot of businesses that need to have regulation in place for health standards now at the same time. speaker-0: regulate speaker-1: The overregulation needs to be taken a look at. Now I also do know a lot of that's subjective. speaker-0: Yeah, and the abuse of are considered subjective regulations ⁓ are maybe harsher on some or some smaller businesses versus larger ones. We can regulate that. can make sure it's more. Like I said, our job is to make sure the resources are equally available if that's what we choose to do. I want to make sure that it's reasonably it's going to be cost effective for you, small business owner. to go and open up a shop here in my city where you live, right? When your child comes where your money and your tax money is coming in, because you're coming to all these stores and you're buying your stuff here anyway. You are in the city. have a right to open up a shop and not have to deal with the fact that this huge franchise next door can afford this ridiculous one be in this Plaza and I can't charge me what I can do so I can stay in business and watch it flourish. Maybe over years of time, you were allowed to raise theirs versus doing it so quickly. Give them a chance. speaker-1: Right and now currently the current status quo of Ottoman Springs is basically they're trying to bring in a lot of big businesses But are they raising the rent? mean is it basically the cost of living is going higher for the rentals and the housing in the community or are they trying to keep a Tight lid on that and trying to keep everything even keeled speaker-0: So because I'm a renter, can't say how the impact of Alton Mark City changes are really impacting a lot of homeowners. That's one of the questions I start asking and poking around when go to public events. Do you own a rent? Like a weirdo walking around asking people, do you want to try to break into your house? But really it's to say, there anything specific that impacts you because you're a homeowner in this zip code versus, you know, then I'll go talk to renters and it is a different conversation. Right. speaker-1: Exactly. speaker-0: I gotta get out there and talk to everybody though to really get a good idea of what bothers people because it's four districts, Altamont. And honestly, some's economic median is higher or lower than others. And so what their issue or what their beef is, it's not the same. And I have to be able to listen to what they're all saying, even if I no idea that that was even a problem. speaker-1: where can people find out more about your campaign? ⁓ where can they, I mean, are we to be at next? I mean, tell us a little bit about that. speaker-0: This Friday, we're having my first like community engagement. love community civic engagement. And so I feel like the best way to do it is with food. Get you to come on out and say, you know, I have the speakers set up and the tables and stuff. And the kids always love to, I love to have the kids come out because I need them to see it. And I think it lowers adults. Tighten this to see kids sprinkled around older kids with their t-shirts on so that they'll go up to the microphone and say, hey, this is something that has kept coming up in the school board meeting. Is this something the city commissioner has? One thing I love about it is I find out lots of problems don't actually apply to my position, but I direct them and let them know this is the person to go to. We have a lot of elections going on. If you want to know who If you want to know who cares about it, let's go and look up ready. Live. Okay. Give them break. It's really easy to look this information up. Who was running for your district right now that has control over that power. Okay. Now this is the websites to go to go see which one of them are talking about what you need to happen. It doesn't even need to apply to me, but you know what that does? I feel like for a community, it lets you know, I'm not biased to be honest one way or another. Right. I have. speaker-1: trying to help the community. speaker-0: And I know that you do too. I'm not biased to it. Let me know so I can go and be your mouthpiece make sure that ⁓ is heard. When a lot of people to another thing he mentioned the local board of Alta Mock Springs has kind of been retired white folks for decades, landowning, not renters. You know what I mean? But a lot of them have children and grandchildren now and they're saying, wow, It's different. don't, you know, they're like, ⁓ I don't understand why they're not going out and buying a house and like, waste this money? have bought my condo by paying for rent. I bought it. I've literally paid more than the purchasing price for this condo is right now. Wow. And I will, I could get kicked out in a month and have nothing to show for that. So it's not that we're not doing the work and still struggling. We're doing it, putting it in, but we don't, want to make sure everyone's got a way to get something out now. Creative ways. gotta have different minds to think of creative ways. speaker-1: You to. You do. mean, right now, doing it the same old, fashionable way just isn't going to work anymore. You had to have a lot of diversity in your thought and your approach. You had to have an entire concept here that nothing is going to fail and that just every, you know, all the different pieces of the puzzle can be put together very well. Real quick, we're going to wrap it up here, but how can they go find out more information about you? Do you have a website? speaker-0: site is my first name Dominique D O ⁓ I N I Q U E for the number. so Altamont Springs is a long name and I couldn't do all that. So alt a l t springs p g ⁓ s com. speaker-1: Okay. And how can they donate to your campaign? speaker-0: On that website, if you scroll to the bottom, ⁓ it's really easy. You can do Zelle which is campaign D Douglas. That's my first initial last name D Douglas that's Zelle or you do through the website. There's a stripe. You can just click it. speaker-1: Okay, great. Well, thanks a lot for sharing a little bit of time here with us today. speaker-0: I really appreciate you for having me. I love these conversations. wish we could have them all the time. speaker-1: Well, that's great and we'll probably have you on again. speaker-0: I love it. speaker-1: Okay, have a good night. You too.