Candidates in St. Cloud mayoral race share top priorities

In a special meeting last week, the City of St. Cloud made it a requirement for those running for city council to live within city limits for at least one year prior to the qualifying date.At that meeting, officials announced the three candidates qualified to run for mayor: Chris Robertson, Adam Wagner and Tony Busby.We asked each to tell us about themselves.“I was raised here in St. Cloud, Florida. Graduated class of 1988, St. Cloud High,” Robertson said.He is the chairman and executive director with the Museum of Military History. He has a background in development, with experience working with the city’s economic development team.Adam Wagner is a local business owner, involved with the VFW.“I own 10th Street Produce and Deli in downtown. I’m also a canteen manager across the street at the VFW,” Wagner said.He has a background in sales, with experience working with the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.Busby is an Army Veteran, who owns an insurance company with his wife. He works as a firearms instructor and serves on nonprofit boards, like the Florida Association of Veteran Owned Businesses.“I go to Tallahassee every year with them to advocate for veteran-owned businesses, minority-owned businesses,” Busby said.We also asked the candidates what their top three priorities would be, if elected.Robertson’s focuses are traffic, employment resources and transparency between St. Cloud City Hall and citizens.“With the mismanaged growth over the past 20 years, we have traffic congestion. We don’t have an employment center in the city, so if we don’t have jobs for our citizens here, we have to find a way to get them to work in the morning and back to their families in the evening,” Robertson said.Wagner’s top three are strategic growth, programs for mental health, homelessness and drug addiction, and public safety.“We have to have the best in technology, equipment, to get first responders out. Regardless if it’s police department of fire, we have to make sure we’re ahead of the curve for long-term,” Wagner said.Busby’s priorities also include public safety, infrastructure, and economic development.“I plan to make it easier for businesses to open, operate while still supporting the businesses that are already here with grants and other ways, making permitting processes easier, just making it overall a pleasant experience for a business owner to open or continue to stay open within our lovely city,” Busby said.We asked the candidates for their thoughts on the rapid population growth across the city.“So growth is coming, whether we want it to or not. What we need to do is we need to plan for it correctly and make sure we have enough jobs for everybody as well,” Busby said.“You can’t stop the building. It’s going to be here. We have to work on a long-term plan, a long-term goal, to strategically grow together. For the people that have already been here 30 to 40 years, to moving forward 30 to 40 years,” Wagner said.“We can still have a sense of community no matter how high our population becomes, because people that want to be part of a community will come together, they will congregate. We just have to make that possible, make it available to them,” Robertson said.The primary election will be held on Aug. 20.The general election is on Nov. 5.