City Commission candidate profile: Martin Hyde

For a man who has made a splash tossing barbs at candidate forums and City Commission meetings, Martin Hyde is introspective about his personal growth during the course of his commission campaign.

“On a personal level, I think I’ve become a slightly more rounded person,” Hyde said. “When you run your business, you kind of get your own way. I’ve had to face the reality — that isn’t the case. It’s good preparation for getting on the commission.”

Hyde, one of three candidates remaining for two spots on the City Commission, wants voters to know he isn’t just bluster. Although he’s a political newcomer, he sees himself as the only candidate willing to have a straightforward conversation about the issues the city is facing.

“People are used to platitudes and half-answers,” Hyde said. “I don’t see things like that. If you ask me the time, I’ll tell you. I won’t tell you what the weather is.”

He has reason to believe his approach is connecting. Hyde, 51, received votes on 26% of the ballots cast in the March election, good enough for third place. He’s fostered a high level of engagement on his campaign’s Facebook page, which has more than 1,400 likes.

But as it stands, he needs to make up ground to win a seat on the City Commission. And so he’s had to focus on making inroads with voters who didn’t embrace his message the first time around, convincing them he’s the right man for the job.

He touts his business background as the main thing that’s prepared him for a role on the City Commission, and he thinks his interest in budgetary issues is a dimension missing from the board.

He fell into the profession by chance. In his youth, he was focused on becoming a professional soccer player — a goal he briefly realized, but one he ultimately had to walk away from.

His father owned an office equipment company in London. He worked his way up from a sales role to the position of managing director. He took to the role, and it shaped the philosophy he’s bringing to the commission race.

“I didn’t anticipate going in my father’s footsteps,” Hyde said. “It’s not terribly thoughtful, to do exactly what your father did. But I learned an awful lot. I learned it from the ground up, and the consequence later on was that I understood that you couldn’t fluff things.”

He also said working with others helped smooth out some of the brashness of his youth.

“You adapt; you evolve,” Hyde said. “I’m not the hard and fast, ‘It has to be this way.’ I listen to people. I work with people.”

Hyde largely advocates for small-government principles, but there are a few areas in which he believes the city should be more ambitious. He wants to “shoot for the stars” with the redevelopment of the bayfront land around the Van Wezel. He thinks the city should actively attempt to recruit a “supercompany” to relocate to Sarasota, serving as a defining cornerstone of the local economy.

His pledge to shake up City Hall goes beyond lobbing criticism. He’s not just grumpy about the way government goes about its business — he’s genuinely passionate about achieving change.

“There’s literally nothing in this for me other than I’m really fascinated to see how far we could go with it,” Hyde said, invoking his pledge to donate his commissioner salary to mental-health charities. “I think Sarasota could be a world-class small city. I don’t think we’ll be that if we think in small terms.”

Hyde has been admonished for taking a harsh line of criticism with his political opponents, particularly outgoing Commissioner Susan Chapman. Other campaigns have accused him of making menacing gestures or hostile comments when the public isn’t looking. He knows he can come off as abrasive, but he said he has respect for those with whom he disagrees ideologically, adding that he’s sure Chapman was acting in what she thought was the best interest of the city.

Kourtney Gillespie, a 23-year-old who volunteered for Hyde’s campaign after seeing one of his Facebook posts, says his demeanor in the forums isn’t necessarily the same as it is when he’s working alongside others.

“When he’s not in that mode, he is very well spoken, very energetic, extroverted to the T, and very nice,” Gillespie said.

Hyde does fear the conversation at City Hall is too insular. One of his main priorities is moving city elections from spring, where voter turnout can sink below 20%, to fall, when turnout can top 70%.

He thinks that will help get broader swaths of the community more engaged in local government. Right now, he thinks smaller interest groups are helping to define city policy to the detriment of Sarasota’s future. His goal is to create a more vibrant community, one that reflects the desires of younger and older people, of average full-time residents and the wealthy.

Despite his criticism of local government, Hyde does believe Sarasota is a great city to live in — there’s a reason he came here when he moved to America 18 years ago.

“It’s a fantastic place,” he said. “But I think it could be better.”