When Commissioner Rick Bryant steps down May 12 after five years on the Gainesville City Commission, he hopes someone else will step up on behalf of small businesses.
Business owners, who often can't sit in commission meetings that can last until 11 p.m. on Mondays, have come to depend on him to stand up for their interests, he said.
"I'm hoping someone will take up that role on the commission after I leave," he said.
Bryant, assistant director of admissions at UF and once a co-owner of a Godfather's Pizza on 13th Street, ran on a platform of helping small business, improving parks and creating youth programs.
He's spent most of his five years on the commission as chairman of the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs Committee.
As chairman, he prides himself on correcting faulty language in an ordinance that had unintentionally made it illegal to put cement in Possum Creek or Westside parks for almost a decade.
Bryant spent six months in 2006 working out a compromise that allowed the city to install cement skate parks and basketball courts at the parks.
He's also proud of his work with Teen Zone, a free after-school program for middle school students that has brought together the county, city and school board to serve as many as 700 students a day.
Bryant said he worries recent budget cuts may have an impact on the program.
After building up a following on the city commission, Bryant chose not to run again in favor of running for the county commission, which he feels has a bigger impact on programs that have become important to him.
He will be replaced by Thomas Hawkins Jr.
Though Bryant has heard Hawkins' views, he said he doesn't know yet whether Hawkins will bring a big change to the commission.
"You don't really figure out views of people until they actually vote," he said.
When Bryant first signed up to run for the at-large seat he holds, he had no political experience.
"I just went down and signed up," he said. "It shocked a lot of people."
Not all his decisions have turned out as he planned, he said.
In particular, he regrets voting to bring in an outside agency to run the city's paratransit system, which brings people to the hospital for medical procedures if they are unable to drive.
"I had to get talked into it," he said. "To me, it hasn't been very successful."
If he could do it again, he said, he would have gone with smaller local businesses.
He feels his non-political background has kept him from getting swept up in partisan politics.
Throughout his time on the commission, he has made it a point to speak with people who represent both sides of every argument, he said.
"Do not put yourself in the habit of not taking meetings with groups you don't philosophically agree with," Bryant warned future commissioners. "Even if you disagree with them, you learn something."
He hopes the commission will continue to support the youth programs, parks and small businesses that have been important to him.
"Sometimes I'm referred to as 'the common-sense commissioner,'" Bryant said. "I just tend to vote what I think is best."
