Two newcomers have successfully joined the city of Alachua’s political scene, having defeated incumbents to take their places as mayor and commissioner.
Walter Welch will become Alachua’s second-ever elected mayor after defeating Gib Coerper, who has held the office since 2010 when it became an elected position. Before that, Coerper spent six years on the city commission.
Welch, a pastor at True Worship Church of God in Christ, has run a quiet campaign based on collaboration between citizens and government.
“Thank God and all the people that believed in my leadership as becoming Mayor of Alachua Florida and I know if we exercise unity and respect we will get the best results in solving problems and issues with God’s help because we’re better together,” Welch wrote in a Facebook post.
Welch beat Coerper by a 21-vote margin, earning about 50.8% of the vote in a 639-618 victory.
Jacob Fletcher won a seat on the city commission by a larger margin, earning about 60.5% of the vote in a race against incumbent Vice Mayor Ed Potts.
Fletcher, a 29-year-old data engineer, ran a campaign based on calls for more transparency from Alachua’s leadership and better long-term planning.
Fletcher took 785 votes against Potts’ 513 to win by a margin of 272 votes.
Transparency, as the winning touchstone, is no surprise as the Alachua City Commission’s meetings have been rocked by citizen calls for change since three of Alachua’s four city planners resigned in quick succession.
The commission began steps toward an inquiry, then called it off, sparking an open letter from one of the planners, who accused city leadership of allowing external influences decide which developments to approve.
Transparency is ez. The city has spent huge sums of money and owns one of the best AV wired commission chambers in the county. Yet they have never live streamed their meetings on the internet or made the recordings available on the internet. For shame. Newberry can do it, but Alachua cannot? Put all meetings online now.
There is only one way to improve the city. Accept the resignation of the unqualified city manager now and do a national search for outside talent. No more inbreeding or “promoting from within” as they call it.
Accept the resignation of the unqualified city attorney and get someone who works for the people, not someone who only protects the interests of the Good Ole Boys. No more giving the city attorney 30% payola for all cash seized on I-75 for filling out a one page form that should be part of their normal job. This is wrong.
Do a DOGE cleaning and fire half the bloated city staff. Compare to cites of similar size. They have one person doing two things. Alachua has two people, each with an assistant and a secretary doing the same thing. Millions of dollars in salary savings are there to be had with no reduction in service.
And of course, check the activity logs (they are public record) for the past and next few weeks for the city safe deposit box at the local bank. Bet you did not know they had one. See which wads of cash or documents or bearer bonds just might disappear. It’s Alachua. Bidness as usual.
Please, don’t look at what that greedy billionaire is doing and try to replicate it on our city level. I do agree with having them serve the best interest of the citizens but I’m curious to see what you think that is.
And what greedy billionaire would you be referring to, mate? Don’t be shy.
Good. Changes have been WAY overdue.
I’m extremely happy with a change of a new mayor for the City of Alachua. Start with also open bid for trash removal for the entire city. These old Waste Pro trucks are leaking hazardous materials through out the city. City of Alachua should be transparent and have there meetings live streamed.