Additional candidates announce bids to run for Winter Park Commission

Another local resident is set to vie for City Commissioner Steven Leary’s soon-to-be-empty seat.

Winter Park resident Willow Shambeck recently appointed a treasurer in a potential campaign for City Commission Seat 1, according to the city website.

The would-be-candidate currently works as the president for Cursor Realty Commercial and has served on the Board of Advisors for the Rollins College Hamilton Holt School since 2004.

She also ran Shou’Ture, a shoe store along Park Avenue, from 2003 to 2009.

“I’ve been very involved with the city for many years since I owned a shop along Park Avenue,” Shambeck said. “I was always very involved and had a strong voice about responsible growth and improving my city in multiple ways.”

“This is just a way to continue to do that, but with a little bit of a louder voice.”

She added that protecting small businesses would be among her biggest goals as a city commissioner.

“Along with our beautiful trees and brick streets and character and history, small businesses built Winter Park,” Shambeck said.

“We’ve done such a good job of building positive commerce, but a lot of the big national tenants are coming in and kind of bullying the small businesses; they have deeper pockets. I intend to dig in and try to find ways to increase economic development and get all of the small businesses successful and sustainable.”

Shambeck would be running against former city commissioner and mayor Gary Brewer, who appointed his own treasurer last week.

Brewer served in the same seat Leary holds today from 1982 up until 1993, when he was then elected mayor and served for a single four-year term. He became the longest serving public official in the city’s history. Leary has announced that he plans to give up his seat to run for Mayor Ken Bradley’s empty mayoral seat in March. Bradley has vowed not to run for re-election.

“I have no issue that’s motivating me to run, I just love the city of Winter Park and have always enjoyed community service,” Brewer said.

“I’ve always said that I wanted to go back to a political position at some point in time.”

The longtime Winter Park official said he offers a balanced point of views in regards to development controversy in the city, seeing things from both the developers’ and residents’ perspectives.

“I recognize the balance – you can’t overdevelop due to issues of traffic, and environment issues have to be considered,” he said. “It’s a delicate balance. I think I appeal to both sides of that issue.”