Ray Turner says District 5 will get a long-term plan and transparency from him

Being with a family that lived in four different countries during his childhood, Ray Turner learned how to be the new kid on the block.

So when the District 5 commissioner was appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to that post a year ago when Vanessa Baugh retired due to family concerns, Turner wasn't bothered being thrown into that role once again.

"I went to 22 schools," said Turner, who lived in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Canada as a kid. "People just get to know me. I am not looking to appease everybody. I have learned how to assimilate to new worlds. I learned how to just be me. That's the most important thing."

"Just being me" for Turner, who will face Robert McCann in the Republican Primary Aug. 20 for his District 5 seat, means listening to his constituents and then talking to them about their concerns.

He has done that through a long series of "Town Halls" at Lakewood Ranch-area HOAs ever since he was appointed.

At those meetings, he runs into folks who are anti-growth and anti-change.

"I get it," Turner said. "They just moved down here and they don't want change. But I am proactive in explaining what the future looks like and why.

"We have to get ahead of (the growth) and plan for the future. We have to know what the future looks like and why. The big thing is that it is necessary to have a long-term plan."

Turner said Manatee County's staff has been good at looking at obstacles and challenges and working through them.

"I knew coming in, you have to stand up for a greater cause," he said. "Voting for development doesn't mean you are in developers' pockets. The challenge is whose rights are you going to stand for? I am nobody's puppet."

Photo by Jay Heater

He said past Commission regimes caused problems by using capital improvement project funds that were intended for improving the road system and other infrastructure, and reallocating them toward other causes. He said that tendency has created many of the traffic concerns the county is experiencing today.

"On a grand scale, we definitely need to get ahead of (growth) with utilities," Turner said. "Those things have to be resolved. You can't have 8-inch pipe if we need 18-inch or 24-inch pipe. You need to have schools, emergency services. You need to get ahead of that, generally speaking. In days gone by, (infrastructure) was a weak spot. Now we have all this infrastructure in place. We've got our pedal to the metal."

Turner believes in being transparent and he is convinced that greater transparency by the county will ease many of the concerns of the public.

"We need to educate our constituents about what is going on, and we need to execute a plan," he said. "People need to know what I stand for.

"If we are making things more transparent, it brings down anxiety."

He said whenever a commissioner approves a development project, no matter how good the plan, there will be resistance from those who might be neighbors to the new endeavor. However, he said that development will be a boost to the community as a whole.

"I look around the country and the world, and this is widespread," he said. "It has become special interest groups driving the train. When I started to see this, I thought, 'Maybe on the local level I can stand up for what is right."

He noted that Schroeder-Manatee Ranch has done an amazing job of creating a family environment in its communities with the supporting amenities. He said North River Ranch (Neal Land and Neighborhoods) is an excellent mix of residential, commercial and emergency services.

He said those neighborhoods provide everything a citizen needs.

Turner also said the commission has been focused on protecting and conserving land and not just developing it.

"The biggest thing is that we have focused on recreation and preserves," he said.

Manatee County's Environmental Lands Management and Acquisition committee has brought three major projects to the Commission in the past year and all three were acquired.

"We have supported them and pushed to get it done," he said. "The philosophy of this board has been 'We need this.' In the past year, we have had 27,000 acres switched over to county land. We are protecting those natural resources. We're trying to make changes."

He urges voters to look at the commission's record and to not concentrate on the "smear spin."

Although he will get smeared in mailers for being pro growth, Turner said his efforts to reach the citizens face-to-face should pay dividends at election time.

"There is a segment of people, those who I have met at HOAs, at Town Halls, through the (Lakewood Ranch) Business Alliance, who have a good sense of who I am," he said.

His year of service on the Commission (he was appointed Aug. 1, 2023) has been a "massive education," Turner said, combined with his time before that on the Manatee County Planning Commission.

A resident of Manatee County for 20 years, he also has served as the secretary of the Manatee Sarasota Building Industry Association. He started his real estate career in 1991, selling custom homes, and transitioned into real estate finance, international marketing and executive management.

All of that provides with a better understanding of what is coming to East County.

"We need careful planning, and to understand what we have to overcome," he said.

He knows he will continue to be accused of being in developer's pockets, but he doesn't let it bother him.

"I knew going in, that was going to be the case," Turner said. "That is part of the territory. I am not a guy who cares about rhetoric. It's not the truth, and it doesn't bother me. If people are looking for the truth, they can find it."

His dad Richard Turner, an entrepreneur, had a saying about what you do when you face adversity, and that continues to guide him.

"He always said, "Your character is measured by how fast you can dust yourself off."