Big decisions are in store for whoever is elected to office after voters go to the polls Aug. 26.
Anyone elected to the Okaloosa County Commission in August will face the ongoing challenge of restoring the public’s trust in local government, Commissioner Nathan Boyles said.
One major decision could be creating a storm water utility — either by raising sales taxes or assessing fees on commercial and residential property. The commission, he said, must begin to make strategic investments in county infrastructure “that have been too long delayed."
The textbooks students study, the technology they use, the schools they attend and the way their teachers are evaluated will all be in the hands of those elected to the Okaloosa School Board.
During the next four years, the board will have to decide how it will deal with schools outgrowing current facilities and how it can increase the number of computers available to students as more tests go online.
The Okaloosa County Clerk of Court’s office’s 110 employees carry out three crucial county functions.
They keep the court system running smoothly, maintain thousands of county records and serve as accountant and auditor for the Board of County Commissioners.
A “significant challenge” facing the Clerk’s office as it transitions to new leadership will be an ongoing conversion from paper records to e-files, said Circuit Judge William Stone, Okaloosa County’s administrative judge.
The state has mandated all court records be e-filed, and that means melding two types of software, Stone said.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: High stakes in Okaloosa's primary election