BROOKSVILLE — Brooksville City Council member Frankie Burnett has decided to make a run at the District 5 Hernando County Commission seat that Commissioner Jim Adkins has said he plans to vacate at the end of his current term.
Burnett, 60, is the first Democrat to enter the race for the seat.
A Brooksville native, Burnett said he always planned to spend a few terms on the City Council and then seek the commission seat. He first ran for the council in 2002 and was defeated. But he won a seat in 2004. Then in 2010, he was appointed to fill the remainder of a term of a council member who left his seat.
In 2012, Burnett won re-election.
A past president of the Hernando NAACP, Burnett said he is running "to continue to serve the people" and because he wants to place the focus back on "participatory democracy." He points to the accomplishments of the community initiatives team formed when David Hamilton was county administrator as a good example.
Burnett would like to see that team reanimated for south Brooksville, where a number of infrastructure projects have been completed, and the formation of other teams across the county.
Other candidates who have prefiled to run in District 5 are Republicans Steve Champion and David Russell. Another Republican who prefiled paperwork, Amanda Chudyk, later pulled out of the race.