Lakewood Ranch's Richard Tatem elected to Manatee School Board District 5

Riverwalk’s Richard Tatem was in the Lakewood Ranch Town Hall parking lot all the way up until the polls closed at 7 p.m.

Just two minutes before polls closed, he saw a young man quickly park and rush toward the entrance. 

Tatem said the man asked him if it was too late. 

Tatem said, “You’re not too late, and vote for me.”

Tatem was thrilled to see the young man exit the polling station, and he eventually did find out the man did in fact vote for him.

For Tatem, every vote counted in the race for the District 5 seat of the School Board of Manatee County. 

"For a military guy, you perform the mission until it's over," said Tatem, who is a retired Air Force colonel. "It wasn't over until 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 23."

Tatem defeated incumbent James Golden and challenger Chantal Wilford with 50.5% of the 23,560 people in District 5 who voted. It takes 50% of the vote or more to prevent a run-off.

“It’s a good feeling,” Tatem said as he celebrated, surrounded by his wife, Regine Tatem; friends; and supporters. “It was a team effort that put me over the edge.”

With this election being the first School Board of Manatee County election using single-district voting, Tatem said it was the enthusiasm of his team of about 20 volunteers going out every day to get the word out about him and his vision for the school board. 

“They were enthusiastic,” he said of his teammates. “It’s not about me. They were enthusiastic about what we were fighting for. It’s Gov. (Ron) DeSantis and his education agenda. They’re all on board with that and they believe in it, and that came out when they had conversations with people and the voters. It was conversations with voters about a set of ideas, not so much about Rich (Tatem).”

The single district voting made the election a “literally local election,” Tatem said. 

“It’s nice to have a local election, as local as possible,” Tatem said. “You really get to see and meet the people. It’s invigorating just to connect with your neighbors and get to know them a little better. That’s what community is about.”

Lakewood Ranch’s John and Eileen Settineri volunteered to stand outside polling stations to share Tatem’s message. Eileen Settineri said they had never volunteered for a candidate before, but Tatem’s personality, effort, good values and military background inspired them to support him and volunteer.

Palm Aire’s Michelle Martin also volunteered for Tatem.

“He’s very committed to making sure teachers get paid while at the same time protecting the kids,” she said. 

Martin and Palmetto’s Deanna Brinkley said they supported Tatem because of his desire to promote transparency and accountability throughout the School District of Manatee County while also encouraging families to participate in their children’s schools. 

Tatem said he looks forward to meeting more people as he starts on the School Board of Manatee County in November. 

Tatem said one of the first topics he wants to address as he starts on the board is working to move the portion of employee salaries that is funded by the 1-mill property tax referendum to the general fund. He said having a supplement to salaries paid through a tax referendum is “bad management practice.”

“We need to start moving that money as quickly as we can,” he said. “It might take a few years, but we want to get to the point where we don’t rely on the millage to pay our employees. It should be a must-pay item that comes immediately out of the general fund.”

He said he will work with other board members to direct the superintendent and staff to start finding ways to move the money to the general fund.

“We’re just going to have to use some creative financing while we maintain ourselves within the rules and the laws,” he said. 

Tatem will join school board member Gina Messenger, who has been serving for six years, and Mary Foreman, who has been serving for two years. 

Chad Choate has been serving on the school board since DeSantis appointed him to the board last August to replace Scott Hopes who left the board to become the Manatee County administrator. Choate won his election for the District 4 seat with 55.35% of the vote.

A new board member for District 2 has yet to be determined as none of the candidates Susan Agruso, Harold Byrd or Cindy Spray received a majority of the vote.

Tatem said with more board members with a year of experience or less, the board will have to focus on building relationships with each other. 

“You need to try to learn people’s needs, objectives and challenges,” he said. “I do leadership training on the outside, so learning that these other board members have their needs, objectives and challenges and trying to help them achieve them without violating our own principles and standards. The challenge is getting together and working to come to a consensus without violating our principles and finding compromises when possible.”