Election season has a way of arriving before most of us are quite ready for it. One day there are a few campaign signs scattered around town. Before long, they're everywhere. Candidate posts fill social media feeds, meet-and-greets appear on the calendar, and names that were once unfamiliar suddenly become hard to miss. But a campaign sign can tell us only a name.
Who are these candidates? What do they believe? What experience would they bring to office? And how might their decisions affect the community we call home? That's where Beaches Watch comes in.
Established in 2004 by residents of Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach and Jacksonville Beach, Beaches Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan civic organization dedicated to helping Beaches residents understand the government decisions that affect their communities and encouraging them to take part in those decisions. The organization does not endorse candidates or tell anyone how to vote. Instead, it offers something voters may find even more useful: a chance to hear directly from the people asking to represent them.
For more than two decades, Beaches Watch has hosted nonpartisan candidate forums for local elections. Candidates are invited to discuss community issues, explain their priorities and answer questions in a setting that moves the conversation beyond campaign slogans and carefully worded mailers. Depending on the election, the Beaches Watch website may also include candidate biographies, campaign links, questionnaires, forum recordings, and election information and results.
“Beaches Watch promotes citizen education on local issues and participation in local government,” said Maria Mark, Beaches Watch president. “The election of our city officials is one of the most important ways citizens can participate in their local government. Through this forum, voters can learn more about the candidates and make an informed decision when they vote.”
This kind of resource can be especially helpful in municipal races, which rarely get the attention given to presidential, congressional or statewide elections. Yet the people elected to local office make many of the decisions residents notice most in their everyday lives. They vote on development, property taxes, public safety, roads, drainage, parks, environmental protection and how the cities prepare for the future. They help determine not only how the communities operate, but also what kind of places they become.
Beaches Watch grew out of one of those very local, and very consequential, decisions. In 2003, residents learned of plans for a 550-unit high-rise development at Beach Marine in Jacksonville Beach. Concerned citizens organized, distributed information and encouraged their neighbors to attend City Council meetings and speak up. The development was ultimately denied. Citizen effort continued with a successful 2004 charter amendment limiting building heights in Jacksonville Beach. The original political action committee was later dissolved, and Beaches Watch became the nonprofit civic organization that continues its work today.
Beaches Watch shares information through its website, emails and printed materials, and encourages residents to attend city council and commission meetings, as well as meetings of planning boards, boards of adjustment, code enforcement boards and other public bodies where important local decisions are often made. It also monitors government activity, researches local and regional issues and hosts community programs to help residents better understand the issues affecting all three Beaches cities.
The organization's work isn't limited to attending meetings and tracking government decisions. Beaches Watch presents an annual Give-Back donation to a Beaches nonprofit whose work enriches residents' quality of life. Its Friend of the Beaches Award recognizes individuals and businesses that have made positive contributions to the community, and its student essay contest encourages young people to get interested and involved in civic affairs.
Beaches Watch meetings are generally held at 7 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month in the Community Room of the Beaches Branch Library, unless otherwise announced. Meetings are open to the public, and recordings of many previous programs and candidate forums are available online.
Election Day may be the end of the campaign, but it's only the beginning of governing. The best time to start paying attention is before the names on those signs become the names casting votes at City Hall.
The next event at Beaches Watch will be the Atlantic Beach candidate forum.
7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 2, at the Beaches Branch Library, 600 Third St., Neptune Beach. (Use the north entrance; the south, or main, entrance will be locked.)
This event will give voters the opportunity to learn about the candidates as well as their platforms and positions on Atlantic Beach issues before the November 3 general election.
• On the Nov. 3 ballot: Curtis Ford, the incumbent, and Nancy Staats for mayor; Lisa Herrold and Jennifer Lagner for Commissioner Seat 4.
• Can't attend? A video of the forum will be posted at BeachesWatch.com on Thursday, Sept. 3.
• Early voting runs Monday, Oct. 17, through Nov. 1, at the Beaches Branch Library and the Jacksonville Beach Community Center, 2508 S. Beach Parkway.
• More information: BeachesWatch.com or info@beacheswatch.com.
