(SANTA ROSA COUNTY, F.L.) --- Congressman Jimmy Patronis is setting up digs at the Santa Rosa County Administration Building.
The congressman made it to the August 11 Santa Rosa County Commission meeting, a review of this Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting, to thank the local officials for the office and to give an update on what is happening in the nation’s capital.
“This is my first time I've got to address any county commission since I've been elected to Florida congressional district once,” Patronis said. “I'm kind of new with this, so you'll have to be kind to me.”
(Photo: Congressman Jimmy Patronis at the August 11 Santa Rosa County Commission Meeting)
Patronis also thanked officials for welcoming Director of Military and Veterans Affairs Dustin Rutherford to the administration building, which Commissioner Colton Wright was glad to make happen, noting “when you reached out and asked if we could find a place,” for Rutherford, “everyone was very quick to try to find a location.”
“I think we got him a great spot here in the office, even have an opportunity to have you a little conference room in case you need to come meet with constituents at some point,” Wright said.
The Republican congressman said he will be around.
“I tell people I am more of a work horse than a show horse. I think it is important that we try to get as much of a presence as possible,” Patronis said, adding the natural fit is to be in Santa Rosa County. “It's nice to be able to have that synergy and have an office right here located in your admin building.”
The congressman’s D.C. offices are where he conducts district business and sits on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and Small Business Committee.
“Over the past year, in Congress we have about a three-seat majority, but on a good day, it's about a one-seat majority,” Patronis said. “That’s with Republicans versus Democrats.”
Calling it a “tinderbox environment,” Patronis said in D.C., “It’s hard to get things done, but we are able to chip away at it.”
“Typically they are more responsive because we sit on a committee that directly affects the policies they care about,” Patronis said, adding his administration’s recent success with a base bill regarding transportation funding.
What the congressman does have going for him is his demographics among his peers, specifically his peers in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas.
“If you're a member from any of those states, you've been vacationing in Northwest Florida for generations, and so there's just a real easy pickup of making a friendship there because they love this part of the country, and then you've got all,” Patronis said.
(Photo: Santa Rosa County Commissioners at August 11 meeting thanking Congressman Jimmy Patronis for the work he does in D.C. on behalf of Northwest Florida)
Commissioner Rhett Rowell thanked Patronis “for what you do representing Northwest Florida and especially on the military side.”
“So thank you for always looking out for them and doing what you can for Whitingfield and Hurlburt and everywhere in Northwest Florida," Rowell said.
Commissioner Kerry Smith said it is “exciting, exhilarating, and refreshing to know that we've got you in our corner up in D.C.”
“Thank you, Commissioner,” Patronis said to Kerry. “Just hold me accountable.”
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