District 5 candidate says he is up to the challenge

Joseph Di Bartolomeo describes himself as a cerebral type person who enjoys being challenged.

Boy, did he pick a whopper of a challenge.

Tara's Di Bartolomeo, who has no party affiliation, is running for the District 5 seat on the Manatee County Commission.

He said he no longer could sit on the sidelines — with those he calls bleacher screamers — and do nothing.

"I can't sit by and watch what is going on," he said. "No one in the county has any solutions. We have Republicans who hone succinct messages, and then just repeat them. So I am suiting up and getting on the field."

He admits it will be a tough campaign.

"There is no way for me to compete with developer and special interest money," he said. "But there are NPAs out there looking for a home. People are looking for moderate candidates with their best interests in mind. I never have been a politician."

But that will mean stirring the pot enough to get voters to do their due diligence and not just mark a letter on their ballot.

"There is a level of complacency in the county in terms of being informed," he said. "The problem I see is the focus on the commission. They are trying to find answers of problems that don't exist in our community. I am focused on the property owners. They have a vested interest in my being elected."

Di Bartolomeo makes it clear that he is not against growth. 

"There is this focus that we are overdeveloping," he said. "That is just a symptom of the underlying issue. A community needs to grow or it withers and dies."

He said commissioners provide sweet deals for developers instead of guiding proper growth.

"The way they normally build infrastructure here, the schools are overcrowded and there is traffic everywhere you go," he said. "We need an economic plan that makes sense. We need to follow a viable growth trajectory. We need to pay as we go, and we are not doing that. This board is not fiscally conservative."

He said the county is overextending itself with bonds, and that eventually will lead to higher taxes. 

"I am a capitalist," he said. "But not at the expense of the people of the county. I hope people will get behind me, a businessman who understands how to make money. And I am not tied into the development community. Everything is on the up and up."

Di Bartolomeo grew up and lived in New Jersey for much of his life, before moving to Manatee County 19 years ago.

"We were not a political family," he said of his youth. "I was born traditional Italian Catholic and I attended Catholic high school."

He earned his bachelor's degree in accounting and a masters in finance from Rutgers University. He earned a second masters in information technology from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Di Bartolomeo has worked in both the public and private sectors as well as owning several small businesses. Among the businesses he has owned are landscaping, transportation, staff augmentation, and professional consulting businesses. 

He has not hired a campaign manager and is planning to knock on as many doors as possible.

Spending two terms on the Tara CDD helped prepare him for a run at a commissioner's seat.

"It was about protecting the assets of the community," he said of his role with the CDD. "It was about cost control and taxation. You need the same core competencies as a commissioner."

As a manager, director or CFO, he said when your people come to you with problems, you tell them to simultaneously come with solutions as well.

"I am a problem solver," he said.

Di Bartolomeo said if he was running Manatee County as a normal business, he would be trying to find an untapped revenue stream. For instance, could there be untapped cruise ship capabilities at the Port of Manatee?

"Or you could get together small business owners and ask them what the county is doing right, wrong, or not doing at all," he said.

He believes the citizens of Manatee County's District 5 will be open to a candidate without a party affiliation. He will find out in the Nov. 5 General Election. He will face the primary winner between incumbent Ray Turner and challenger Robert McCann.

"Our issues are not red or blue, or right or left. I am going to reach people by using social media and by knocking on doors. I will speak to anyone about anything. People have to break the cycle of voting against their best interests."