Voters gathered with candidates for the Alachua County Commission District 2 seat for the Democratic Party’s open forum at the Freedom Community Center Tuesday night.
The seat will be open following current Commissioner Marihelen Wheeler’s retirement later this year. Four candidates have qualified for the ballot: Bryan Williams, Charlie Jackson, Donna Bradbrook and Tina Certain. All four candidates are Democratic. No Republicans qualified to be on the ballot.
Williams did not attend Tuesday’s forum.
During the event, candidates answered questions on infrastructure development, homelessness, immigration, environmental issues and the potential for data centers in Alachua County. Candidates received the questions a week ahead of the event, according to Taylor Murphy, the vice chair of the Alachua County Democratic Party,.
Donna Bradbrook
Bradbrook, an Alachua County resident and employee, has lived and worked in the county for 20 years. She previously served as the county’s strategic performance manager and worked with the Alachua County Citizens Academy.
The Alachua County Citizens Academy is a free nine-week program that allows Alachua County residents to meet with commissioners and learn more about local government.
During the forum, Bradbrook advocated for the county’s climate action plan and opposed Florida’s property tax bill that will be on the ballot in November.
The bill, if passed, would give Florida homeowners a $250,000 tax reduction on property taxes that do not fund public schools.
Bradbrook expressed concerns the bill would potentially cut $40 million from the county’s budget for non-discretionary services like animal resources and veteran services.
“These are the services that our citizens want in Alachua County,” she said, “not what the state wants to dictate to us. I am ready to allocate money to fight the state on every point of service or program that may be reduced or eliminated as a result of this ballot item.”
Bradbrook also advocated for investigating how companies like Nestle use the Floridan Aquifer system for commercial use to bottle water.
In 2021, the Suwannee River Water Management District approved a permit allowing the Nestle-owned Ginnie Springs bottling operation to pump around 1 million gallons of groundwater a day. The permit received criticism from residents concerned about the health of the Florida Aquifer.
“I am absolutely willing to partner with state representatives to pursue a bill that would remove that egregious law and to put something in place that is more fair to the residents of Alachua County,” Bradbrook said.
Tina Certain
Certain, a lifelong Gainesville resident and Alachua County School Board member, is running for county commissioner after serving on the school board for eight years. Prior to her time on the board, she worked for 23 years at Gainesville Regional Utilities as an accountant.
During the forum, Certain expressed her commitment to fighting state overreach in the county, supporting coordinated efforts between the city of Gainesville and Alachua County to address homelessness and supporting development in East Gainesville.
Growing up in Seminary Lane in Northeast Gainesville, Certain said she’s heard a lot of conversations surrounding development in East Gainesville. She said she was excited to hear about the county-approved development plan for Eastwood Preserve, which would bring 149 new housing units.
“In East Gainesville, there’s been a lot of promises, lots of studies over the years and many, many years of lack of investment,” Certain said. “When I read the approval of the Eastwood Preserve development, I was ecstatic. It’s a start.”
She said she’s spoken with residents of East Gainesville who want mixed-use infrastructure like grocery stores and housing similar to Celebration Pointe.
When asked about affordable housing, Certain said she’s supportive of investing county money in affordable housing projects and buying land for future affordable housing development. With a background as a school board member, she said stable housing is very important for families in Alachua County.
“We need to ensure that folks understand that housing is a right,” she said. “We need to provide a safe and secure place. Everyone deserves to have that at a pricepoint that they can afford to pay with jobs that we have in our community.”
Charlie Jackson
Jackson, a Hamilton County-born army veteran, served as Alachua County’s facilities manager and director from 2001 to 2022. During the forum, Jackson spoke about the importance of supporting Alachua County residents by funding veteran services, job creation and affordability.
To avoid taxing citizens, Jackson said he would support initiatives like private individual contributions and increasing taxes for corporations to address affordability issues in the county.
In Alachua County, he said, a $14 minimum wage is not enough for most residents to afford housing and other necessities.
“We got to get the minimum wage up, we got to bring jobs to this community,” he said. “Let’s go beyond taxing citizens to the point where they can’t eat, they can’t buy gas to go to work and they can’t pay their own taxes. What about getting other means of bringing money into our community, other than hitting the same tax?”
When asked what role the county should take in immigration enforcement, Jackson said he supports treating all citizens equally and preventing racial profiling. However, he said he supports strict immigration enforcement.
“Let’s accept the fact: If you’re getting benefits, you’re not paying taxes, you’re going to schools and you’re not American, then something is grossly wrong,” Jackson said. “If they’re not legal citizens, we’ve got to get them out of the United States of America.”
Jackson also spoke about the potential for data centers in Alachua County. He said he would want to investigate the full impacts of data centers before opposing their construction entirely.
He added he would support building data centers on wetlands in Florida if they bring jobs to Alachua County and include opportunities for water recycling.
“I’ve lived all across the United States and seen a lot of things done differently,” he said. “People even said you can’t build on wetlands. That’s not true. Why can’t we bring a data center if it’s not affecting the environment?”
Among those who attended Tuesday’s meeting was Soorya Lindberg, a 44-year-old Alachua County resident, who said she attended the forum to specifically hear how the candidates view data centers.
After attending another candidate forum hosted at UF on June 28, Lindberg said she was disappointed to hear Jackson’s views on data centers.
“Candidate Charlie Jackson said it’d be good for jobs," she said. “I wholeheartedly disagree. Data centers are a very hot topic across the nation, especially here because of our water shortage, the aquifer and the environmental demands.”
Janice Garry, a 73-year-old attendee, said the event gave her a chance to delve into the complexities of Alachua County policymaking and learn more about each candidate.
“I was impressed with all the candidates,” she said. “For me, Donna Bradbrook really stood out.”
The Alachua County Commission election is Aug. 18. Voters can register to vote, check their registration status and find polling locations through the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections website.
Contact Olivia Lofaso at olofaso@alligator.org. Follow her on X @OLofaso77652.
Olivia Lofaso is a third-year journalism student and the Summer 2026 city/county commission reporter. She previously worked as a contributing writer at The Alligator. In her free time she enjoys visiting art museums and solving crosswords.
