OCALA, FL (352today.com) – Political newcomer Zackary “Arbor” Feliciano, has announced his intentions to run for office and is seeking the City of Ocala mayoral seat, challenging incumbent Ben Marciano, with election day being a little over two months away on Sept. 16.
The biggest issue that Feliciano sees in the community is that so many honest hard-working people are not getting the support they need, whether it be from their employer, the community or the government, said Feliciano. The mayoral candidate believes that the community deserves better, with his top priority being to serve the community.
“Our city government seems to be content to stand by and watch as the bottom 20% of Ocala is in poverty according to the U.S. Census Bureau,” said Feliciano, who works at Publix and prior to that had worked at FedEx. “I see my co-workers working two or three jobs just to get by. It doesn’t seem sustainable for our community to continue on this way, and I believe we need a mayor who will address that.”
Feliciano has always had a strong sense of wanting to take care of the community that he lives in and for social justice.
“I do find it unjust that we live in times where there are billionaires and people living on the streets,” said Feliciano, who is only 20 years old. “I think that the best way to effectuate change would be for the government to hold the most in power accountable.”
Feliciano’s biggest plans for addressing community needs is something that the mayoral candidate is referring to as the Ocala Alms Budget, which will be an office he seeks to establish underneath the city’s budget management office that will work directly with local charity organizations, who are helping those most in need. Charitable organizations will all have a representative who will be able to talk to the alms budget office, come up with a good annual budget for them to maintain their operations, and the city will help fund them to make certain they can do the good work that they always do, he said.
“The Volunteers of America, they do have proven infrastructure,” said Feliciano. “They have the historic Ritz Hotel, where they house veterans help them get back on their feet. They have the more recent affordable housing plot that they developed across from it, and they do great work there. The biggest thing is that these great organizations have to come begging hat-in-hand to our city council over-and-over because they’re reluctant to help.”
The mayoral candidate would also like to establish three free city run health care clinics, for the part of the population that is uninsured, which is nearly 17%, said Feliciano.
“Our city government needs to step in, on these life-or-death issues,” said Feliciano. “With corporate taxes, specifically the property tax, I want to raise that and tie it to the revenue of corporate commercial property, and that will be on corporations with over 1,500 employees…these employers that drain our community of our wealth and send it up to their executives at the top, without paying us enough to survive in our community. Those clinics will be available to the uninsured residents of Ocala at low or no cost to ensure they can get the care they need.”
For more information about the candidate, you can access his website at arbor4mayor.com.