OCALA, FL (352today.com) – I recently caught up with Mayor-Elect Ben Marciano for Homepage, K-Country and Wind-FM’s public affairs program which airs Sunday mornings at 6AM. Ben ran unopposed after longtime Mayor Kent Guinn announced he would not be seeking re-election.
We’re still calling you Mayor-Elect Ben Marciano. I can’t call you ‘Mayor’ until December.
That’s correct.
You’re a Dunnellon kid, like me, by way of Queens, NY. That’s a different world, indeed. So, what are your favorite memories of growing up in Dunnellon?
Yeah, you know, it was really the nature. My grandfather raised me and he would take me fishing out in Yankeetown. People wouldn’t think this, but I grew up in the woods. I like riding dirt bikes and being outside. So, I really enjoyed that aspect of it.
You’ve also always been really interested in sports. So, tell me how the discipline of sports applies to your daily life.
Great question. So, my ninth-grade year I went out for basketball, and I tried out. I was the last guy to get cut. The coach looked at me and said, “You can do like every other kid – go and play video games and come out next year. You won’t make the team. Or you can go home and practice and come back next year and you’ll make the team.” Well, I chose the latter. I went home and practiced four hours a day and came back the next year and made the team. And what it taught me was that if you want something bad enough, work for it. I think that instilled in me my work ethic. Really it was such a valuable lesson in life that I use today. If I want something bad enough, go get it.
What’s your favorite sport?
Basketball. Now, I love to watch football. But I played basketball, and my boys are into basketball. And I coach them.
You love it, don’t you?
Absolutely! They might not love it, but I do.
Photo Credit: Scott Chase | 352today’s Kathy Dugan recently had an opportunity to sit down
and talk with Mayor-Elect Ben Marciano at length
You were going to college for criminal justice. What was your actual plan?
I wanted to be in the FDLE (Florida Department of Law Enforcement). I was literally in my senior year before I obviously made a change in my life because of what happened. But I was still always passionate about law enforcement. Even today when I do a ride-along with cops, I get so excited about the rush and being able to be there and serve the community and protect the community. So, you know, it’s still a passion of mine.
How did that plan get derailed?
While I was in my senior year at FSU, I got arrested for a drug charge. I really believe, from the first time I took a drink of alcohol, I was an alcoholic. There are a lot of family members that are alcoholics or drug addicts, and they say that it could be half hereditary and half environment. I had a double dose and, you know, it filled something inside me. It took me to a dark place. So, for several years I’ve battled addiction and alcoholism. Thank God I was able to get sober and find recovery. Now I use it to help people. And obviously since then, I’ve been able to get my record cleared through an expungement. That’s how I’m able to be the Mayor of Ocala. But I really look at this as a platform to share my story and to, maybe, give people hope because you don’t have to be defined by your past. You could just be a tool of the lessons that you learned now to move forward and help people.
We make those mistakes when we’re kids. I watch my kid make them every day. He’s almost 24. They do it and that’s how they learn. Unfortunately, it takes some longer. Some go a little darker and deeper. You went a little darker. Tell us about your addictions back then.
So, I would tell you that I tried to outrun my disease. I literally would move. I moved to New York. I moved to Miami. It really controls you. It controls your mind, right? That’s the best way to explain it, if you’re not an alcoholic or an addict. You look at these people and you go, “Why?” The only thing I could say is that it does control your mind, but it took me to a place where I was in Miami. I was let go from my job. I lived in a high-rise apartment, and I had to wake up to a drink every day just to function. Physical withdrawals would literally almost put me into a seizure, and I remember not wanting to live anymore. One day, I just took a swig of vodka. And I did want to end my life. I remember saying a prayer, “God, if there is a God, please do something.” And literally, it was probably 20 seconds later my phone rang. It was my mom. And she said, “Something told me to call you.” I do think that was God having a divine intervention. That was in 2005. I checked myself into The Centers on Airport Road. I stayed there for six months. I learned how to rebuild my life and that’s where it all started for me.
It’s so easy to help your life fall apart. It’s hard to get it back together again, isn’t it?
It is, it is. Because once the alcohol and drugs are gone, you still have to go back and deal with all of the mental aspects and there was a lot of childhood trauma for me. I experienced a lot of really horrible things. I tell people if you could think about it happening to a child, it probably happened to me. So, you know, I had to go back and work through those things and I had a lot of really good people that walked me through it. And I committed to saying, “Who do I want to be? Who do I want to be as a person?” And I started visualizing those character traits every day – almost like I was training myself and surrounding myself with really good people who I wanted to be like. So, I tell people to find people you want to be like. They will eventually rub off on you. And, obviously, I have an amazing wife who is one of those people who has helped me become who I am today. And then God, you know, just prayer of him guiding me through. I tell people the world’s going to give you challenges every day, you know? It’s just how you choose to respond to those challenges, and today I look at those as opportunities. I used to look at those as “Woe is, me.” And allow it to dictate how I was for the day. Today, I just say, “This is just an opportunity for me to grow through it.”
You found your passion while you were working at Gold’s Gym in Tallahassee. Tell us what changed the course of your education and career by working with them.
I was really small when I graduated high school. I was like 115 pounds. If you were to see a picture of me, you would laugh. So, I was always intimidated by my size and working out definitely gave me confidence. But what I enjoyed most about the fitness industry is watching people change. You know, they come in. They probably had something – maybe they were given a bad circumstance like they have heart disease or something and they need to make a change. Then I watched them change and I love that. I also found great success. I was very successful in the industry so that also drove me. So, I traveled with this consulting company fixing failing health clubs. I did that for years and then eventually made my way to the YMCA and eventually became a vice president for the Y. Then I bought Zone (Health & Fitness) in 2014.
You’ve got two of them (Zone Health & Fitness) now. Any more expansion expected?
We have an owner-operator, Tracy. And I have a really amazing staff. I tell them that we will take it as far as you want to take it because it’s really your business, at this point. I treat these people as they’re my family and they own it. So it’s really going to be up to them. I’d love to see more Zones, but we’re going to leave it in their hands on what they want to do with it.
My son actually had a really good question for me to ask you: How are you going to be mayor and still manage your gyms?
That’s Tracy. Tracy now runs the day-to-day. She is the boss. I tell people she’s my boss. You know, my job is assisting her. Essentially, I have three women in my life that kind of direct me: my wife, my campaign coordinator, and my business. So, I don’t have an original thought anymore.
You mentioned that unless you work on your addiction, it will travel with you no matter how far away you go. How did those addictions travel with you?
It’s always inside of you. If you’re in recovery, you’ll understand this, that the disease never goes away. If I were to pick up a drink today, the obsession to use would kick back in. So you always have to be cognizant of it. You always have to be working on it. So, I attend meetings. I’m very involved in the recovery community. I sponsor guys. I’m always keeping it in front of me because it is sneaky. It will sneak up on you in other ways. So just know that it’s always there and just being cognizant of it. I’m always working on it and making sure that I’m keeping it at bay.
Is that why you’re always an alcoholic – either a dry or wet alcoholic? There’s not, “I’m not an alcoholic anymore?”
Yeah. I say I’m a recovering alcoholic. I’m recovering from it, essentially.
Is it hard for you to be around it?
I try not to put myself in situations all the time. It doesn’t bother me, but you don’t want to be around it all the time. The way the program is described is that you can literally go wherever you want if you’re in the right spiritual state of mind and your intentions are good. I’m in the space now where I feel good about it, but I don’t go out to nightclubs and bars and things like that. It’s just not my scene. I’m not going to do that. But if I’m at a party and people are drinking, I have no problem with it. I tell my wife – my wife is not like me, she doesn’t drink – I tell my wife, “I live vicariously through you.”
That turning point with your mom helped you get sober. You got on the road to becoming an owner of Zone Health & Fitness, and you’ve done a lot of good for our community with the Zone Mission. Tell us what that mission is and about some of the local groups you and your wife, Danielle, have been involved in.
So, it’s not only to improve the lives of our members, but also to strengthen our community. We wanted to be a place that not only made our members better but made our community better. So, we’re very involved in the community. I think you see that. And we love it, but we also are very passionate about helping our employees become the best version of themselves. We put a lot of emphasis on that. We do a lot of unique things with our staff. We really want to focus on their mental health and helping them become better, so we do a lot around that. But my wife’s passion is helping foster kids or being involved with children. If she could, she’d bring home 50 [kids], if I let her. That’s her heart and I’m really passionate about helping underprivileged kids because of my background. But we have so many amazing nonprofits in the community, and I get to see them. So, we’re truly blessed. They really are the heart of the community, a lot of them and what they do.
A few years back, we lost Ocala Police Chief Greg Graham. I loved Greg. He was a great guy. You helped form the Chief Greg Graham Committee and you host a walkathon each year. Tell us about that annual event.
We started that several years ago. Knowing Chief Graham, he was in the gym every day and was the ultimate servant. He had a treadmill that he walked on and it was his treadmill. I mean, we have 30 treadmills and Greg would only walk on this one treadmill. So, if something was wrong with it, he would text me and I’d say, “Well, go pick one of the other 29.” He wouldn’t. So, we dedicated a treadmill in his memory. There is a picture of him on it and a story about him. So, if you want to come in, you can walk on that treadmill. But for a couple of years, we would do a walkathon where people would sponsor times and come in and walk on that. And then we would use the money to support the organizations that were important to him. Now, we’ve picked some other events. So, the walkathon is not something that we’re doing but we’re doing lunches now and bringing awareness. He was really passionate about mental illness and addiction. So, a lot of the focus around that committee is building awareness around those things.
Okay, so at what point did you just sit there and go, “I think I want to run for mayor?”
It was probably about two and a half years go. I had the opportunity to expand Zone. We had an investor lined up and I was praying on it. And I realized my happiness does not come from chasing success. My happiness comes from serving people. I was in church. And I was praying. I really felt God speak to me and say, “You’re now ready for what I prepared you for.” So, then I’m like, “Alright, what is it, God?” That is when it came on my heart that I love serving people and I love our community and that’s the way the mayor’s job is. Your job is to serve the community. Make it better help people, and that’s why I was so intrigued by the position.
As mayor, what do you think is the most pressing problem facing Ocala?
I would say the mental health of our community. If you look at it, we could sit there and say there are a lot of issues that go on. But underneath it all, most of the time, there’s mental illness that causes it – like the crime in our community. When you do a ride-along with our police officers, people are breaking the law because of mental illness and addiction and alcoholism. So, I really want to put a major focus on improving the mental health of our community even our kids in schools. That’s what they’re struggling with – the stresses. The things that they’re dealing with today is completely different today than it was in the past. You talk to teachers, and it’s so hard to teach the kids because they’re so in their heads of what they’re dealing with in their home life. I feel like if we could really put a major focus on that and make a dent in it, then we could really improve our overall community.
How do you think you’ll address that problem of mental illness? What do you think you’ll do?
Well, I think the first thing is that this will be a platform for me to share my story. The first thing is to build awareness, and then show people that it starts with opening up. Right? The courage comes from talking about it. I tell people either get it out or it will take you out. Even our first responders, a lot of times, they think that they need to hold it inside, shoulder the burden. We need to build awareness that it’s okay to talk about it. Then we also need to educate people on how they can get help in our community. We actually have a lot of resources available that people do not know about. So, we are going to educate the community on how you can get help. I think we need to partner with businesses and make mental health part of their business plan. That’s what we’ve done at Zone. We actually have implemented some mental health benefits to take care of our employees. If we can teach them how to take care of themselves and their mental health, they’re going to bring that home to their kids. So, those are some of the ideas that I have to really focus on and improve it.
Okay, so let’s talk about your top three priorities when you are officially mayor.
Improve the physical health of the community. We are rated the most unhealthy city in the state of Florida, I believe. That was really shocking. But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I’m the mayor after 25 years of experience in the health and fitness industry. So coming up with creative ways to really engage the community on healthy activities with beautiful parks, things in our community. I envision, you know, ‘Work Out with the Mayor,’ or looking at really cool initiatives to get people active and moving. Right? So important. I tell people, “Listen, if your physical health has nothing going on right now, this might not be a priority. But it will happen at some point if you don’t take care of yourself and then that becomes a priority. I was reading an article the other day and you know what? The doctor said that he found the number one regret in people when they get older that you would hear a lot of times is, “Well, I didn’t spend enough time with my family.” You know what people are saying now? “I wish I would have taken care of myself more so I did not have so many ailments that I had to deal with and really enjoy my retirement.” So, we need to get in front of that.
Number two would be the mental health of the community and really putting a major focus on that.
And then lastly is that we are growing tremendously, so we have to have strategic growth. So, looking at that, and I tell people, “Listen, we have county commissioners, city council, school board members that are all working together to really try and fix this.” I see it, but it’s a bottleneck from five years ago where we didn’t get in front of it with the right plan. So, I think we just need to continue to work on it, make sure we have a solid plan in place, and get in front of this so that we have the right infrastructure to support this growth we’re experiencing.
What do you think is our city’s biggest strength?
I would say it’s the people. My dad is visiting from New York, and he said, his words exactly, “This place is different.” Well, what is different about it? He says, “It’s the people. People care. They stop. They want to know how you’re doing, and it really is almost like the spirit is alive in our community and the genuine care of the people in our community.”
Are there areas you’d improve or enhance?
I love what we started to do downtown. I think it’s great! I want to see more of the development of the downtown area. I’d love to see more things for kids and families. That’s one thing I hear a lot, especially from younger kids, is what are some things that you could bring to our community so that I don’t have to travel to Gainesville or Orlando. So, those would be things that I would be looking to bring; more things for families and kids but continue to work on improving the downtown area because I love it. I think it’s going in the right direction. I think we can continue to do more.
So, Mayor Guinn told me a few years back that everyone has his cell phone number and that he fields calls all the time. So, how accessible are you going to be to the citizens of Ocala?
Very accessible. And, again, I’m going to have big shoes to fill. I mean, if you drive by City Hall, you’ll see his [Mayor Guinn’s] car there at 7 o’clock at night. So, he has definitely served the community well. I’m the same way, you know. People are already reaching out through Facebook and have my cell phone number. I’m getting quite a few calls a day and I’m trying to make myself available. One thing I do want to say is that I do want to have clear objectives of what I want to accomplish for this community. You could very easily get where you’re always on in the community and not focus on the goals that you want to accomplish. You have a two-year term to be able to accomplish those objectives and I really want to have a sold plan in place and be able to show clear results of how we made this community better. So I’m going to be accessible but I’m also going to be working very hard on this plan to make our community the best that we can.
So, what do you think is the most important role of the mayor?
I was thinking about this yesterday. I think you set the culture for the community as the mayor. It’s knowing who we want to be and you’re the voice for the community and really creating the direction of where we want to go. Your main responsibility is to oversee the police department. We have an amazing police chief. He does amazing work. So, my job would be to serve him and make sure he can continue to do a great job. Why do you think everybody wants to move to Ocala, Florida? We’re one of the safest cities in the country! Well, that’s because of our amazing police department. So a top priority has to be also making sure that we take care of them and make sure they have the resources they need to be extremely effective.
You don’t hear a lot of complaints about them like you do around the rest of the country.
It’s leadership. Chief Balkan is an amazing leader. Always strives for the top. He’s got great majors, great captains. I tell people if you want to learn about them take a ride-along. You can do a ride-along and learn about their job and what they do every day because these guys really do some amazing work. They have to be mental health counselors when they go on calls. I watch them where they had to fill in and be a dad. They’re having to fight crime. They’re having to stay completely emotionally stable – no matter what the circumstance. There are so many facets to what they do every day, and they do a great job.
It’s not just our cops, but their families that support them. They’re really important, as well, that they have them in the right head space to be out there. We have the resources, like you said, including help for firefighters with PTSD. For police officers, I mean, they’re shooting people sometimes. That takes a toll on somebody.
Yeah, that definitely scars them when they witness and have to go through that.
December 5 is the official day you’ll be sworn in. Your family will be there, your wife, Danielle, and your kids. What are their names?
Benjamin Jr. is 14. Vincent, who’s 11, and my daughter, Giovanna, who is nine.
I kind of consider you official now.
Well, thank you. Kent’s the mayor. But I want to make sure that I’m there learning from him. But I’m so excited about this opportunity. It’s going to be great.
So, what you’re saying is in the meantime, we can blow up Mayor Guinn’s phone?
Do it! Do it! Absolutely, because everywhere I go, he’s saying, “Well, December 5, make sure you call him.”
Ben Marciano will be sworn in as Ocala’s mayor on December 5 at 4 p.m.
Listen to my interview in its entirety at the link above.