Your candidate: Gene Jaleski

Gene Jaleski is running for Longboat Key Town Commission, but you won’t see any “Vote for Jaleski” signs or buttons this season.

That’s because the Longbeach Village resident has decided not to fundraise for the March 10 general municipal election, in which he is challenging Commissioner Phill Younger for one of two at-large seats.

“I don’t believe a sign in the front yard makes someone a voter,” Jaleski said. “An ad in a newspaper proves that someone is rich.”

Jaleski is running for the commission because he believes other voices need to be heard.

“I feel that the price of admission to democracy is having a voice,” Jaleski said.

Jaleski is critical of the current commission and what he believes is a lack of progress. He has gathered data from the town’s website that show the town spent $5.19 million over the past five years on outside parties, such as attorneys and consultants, and $8.8 million on acquisitions.

“Have we moved one flake of dirt yet at Bayfront Park and the town center?” Jaleski said.

Jaleski advocates replacing the town’s building department with a company as a contractor and focus on enforcing the town’s codes, particularly those that deal with short-term rentals. He worries about Longboat Key becoming more like its neighbor to the north, Anna Maria, where many believe that relaxed rental restrictions have changed the island’s character.

“If you want more tourism, vote for my opponent,” Jaleski said. “If you want to preserve it as an exclusive community and a retirement community, vote for me.”

Jaleski also believes the town should work to find a mechanism through which all taxpayers — not just those registered to vote on Longboat Key — can have a say in its future.

“They can’t vote, but they can certainly help us seek policy,” Jaleski said.

If Jaleski wins the race, he will find himself in a familiar place: the at-large seat he won in 2009, in a race against incumbent Randall Clair. Jaleski resigned after just more than a year.

At the time, the commission was in the midst of hearings on a proposed $400 million Longboat Key Club Islandside redevelopment project that the commission approved and was subsequently quashed in the court system.

Jaleski said he believed the town was breaking the law during his time on the commission in its handling of the Key Club project.

“It became very hostile on the commission for me,” Jaleski said.

Since his resignation in May 2010, Jaleski says he has actually become more active in town affairs. He wrote newspaper columns, attended and spoke at various town meetings and lobbied against a proposed cell tower and in favor of beach management. He says that without his efforts, the town would not have placed 110,000 cubic yards of sand on the beach near Longbeach condominium, where Jaleski owns a unit.

Originally from Larchmont, N.Y., Jaleski attended Brown University and earned a master’s degree from the University of Washington, in Seattle. After a job with Boeing and a short stint in the entertainment business, he started a company that designed high-end technology systems for the gaming industry.

He fell in love with Longboat Key while visiting his parents in 1978 and moved to the island full time in 1985.

Asked if he believes he can win the upcoming election, Jaleski said:

“I hope to. If people are informed voters, I can win. If they look at yard signs, my opponent will win.”

GENE JALESKI
Age: 73

Occupation: Retired owner of a Lake Tahoe-based company that produced high-end technological systems for the gaming industry

Family: One daughter, three grandchildren

Residence: Longbeach Village

Hometown: Larchmont, N.Y.

Hobbies: Computers, yardwork, Longboat Key civics
Interesting fact: During World War II, Jaleski’s father was President Franklin Roosevelt’s cardiologist.

Although Jaleski doesn’t remember it, his father took him and his brother on several occasions to the White House, where First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt looked after them.