When Blake Bell first ran for Brooksville City Council, he wanted to help usher in a new generation of decision-makers for the city where he was born and raised.
Four years later, he’ll leave having spent two years as mayor and hopeful about the direction where Brooksville is headed. However, he’ll no longer sit on the council, having this month opted not to seek re-election for Seat 3. It was an election he was set to win unopposed.
“There were a lot of people who had served for many, many, many years in Brooksville and I felt like we needed a change in the City of Brooksville,” Bell said. “That’s why I originally ran. I ran because I wanted to see a younger voice step up to the plate and be a leader at the city level. Because it had been the same old, same old since the ’80s.
“I feel like over the last four years and really over the last two years, I have been able to make substantial impacts on my community by service on the City Council.”
Bell, a seventh-generation Brooksvillian who graduated from Hernando High, the University of South Florida and earned his law degree at the Mississippi College School of Law, was elected to the council in 2020.
The following year, he was chosen by the council as vice-mayor, then replaced Pat Brayton as mayor in 2022 and picked again in 2023. He provided two reasons why he won’t be returning.
“The first is I don’t want to be one of these people who just runs to run,” Bell said. “I feel like I’ve accomplished a lot and I’ve put this city in a good place and there are young leaders who are now stepping up to the plate who are now going to finish and make those same type of changes that I’ve been able to make, and I’m excited to see what they do.
“And the second thing is, City Council, I’ve treated it as a full-time job and I wanted to treat it as a full-time job. And I’ve wanted to give back to my community, but I also have a full-time job that actually pays like a full-time job. So it’s a lot of work. If you take City Council and you take being the mayor seriously, it’s a lot of work. I’m an attorney by trade and I’m going to focus on that part of my life.”
Bell said that he has been fortunate to have a career that has allowed him time to serve as mayor.
“Being an elected official is as much as you put into it and I’ve put 100% into being the mayor of the City of Brooksville over the last two years and I’m proud that I’ve done that,” Bell said. “But because there are people who are capable of stepping in that role it’s good for me now to be able to focus on my career.”
Thinking over his greatest accomplishments as mayor, Bell pointed to a six-month moratorium on building developments in the city put in place at the start of his tenure.
“The reason I did that was before I became mayor we would have developers come to us while I was still on council and we were working on very old regulations from a city standpoint on what we could allow a developer to do,” Bell said. “And because of certain things that had been passed in previous years, maybe 30-40 years ago, we had to sometimes allow things to happen from a development standpoint.
“So my goal at the moratorium was to completely rewrite our development standards at the City of Brooksville level. We did that and I’m very excited about that.”
He also noted that he tried to bring a heavy focus on parks and recreation.
“When I came on council, parks was kind of on the backburner,” Bell said. “Parks are very important for a small city like Brooksville. We have new leadership at our parks department and I’m very excited about it. We have taken a real focus on our parks. We’ve expanded our parks’ footprint. And just making our parks more attractive to people who either live in the City of Brooksville or come to visit the City of Brooksville.”
Additionally he said he is proud that there have been no recent raises in the millage rate. Next, he said the city needs to improve its aging infrastructure, such as wastewater systems.
Under state law, municipalities set their own qualifying period for council candidates. Bell said that the qualifying period will extend into August in hopes of finding a candidate to run for Bell’s seat in November. Bell hopes current Vice-Mayor Christa Tanner will take over as mayor when his term ends in December.
“She is a phenomenal lady who is very smart, understands policy and government very well. She understands budget very well,” Bell said.
Bell feels confident in the entire council’s ability to make a difference in Brooksville. Looking back, he was happy to have the opportunity to do his part.
“It was one of the greatest experiences of my life,” Bell said. “My family came here in 1842. So, I have a tremendous amount of love and pride for the City of Brooksville. My entire family is here. My heart is here. So because of that, it was easy fighting for Brooksville, working for Brooksville, representing Brooksville. Those things were easy for me because of the deep pride and love I have for the City of Brooksville.”
