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Jon Thaxton: A Different Breed of Politician

By Allan Horton

Sarasota County Commissioner Jon Thaxton is unique within the flock of Florida’s political office-holders. Peer-reviewed author of a scientific study of one of the nation’s rarest birds, the Florida Scrub Jay, Thaxton clearly thrives on challenge.

A bird found only in Florida, Aphelocoma coerulsecens lives in sandy, well-drained oak scrub, a habitat favored also by its human nemesis – the Florida land developer. Yet Jon Thaxton, as a county commissioner in one of the state’s most rapidly developing counties, is uniquely equipped to mediate the inevitable collisions that occur when land development meets endangered species. For not only is Thaxton licensed to band scrub jays, he also is a licensed real estate broker.

Thaxton, 52, finds no paradox in such apparent conflicts, stating on his web page (www.Jonthaxton.com) that no one is better equipped to mediate land use issues than someone who sells real estate.

A fourth-generation native of Sarasota County, Thaxton was raised on a small family farm near Osprey, hunting and fishing between Sarasota and Venice. He roamed the woods and coastal shorelines as a youngster, often alone, developing a deep appreciation for the pine flatwoods, oak hammocks and mangrove shorelines that dominated the terrain. Such forays taught him that no matter how subtle the landscape appears, what occurs in the flatwoods ultimately affects the estuaries where fresh and salt water mix. Seldom hindered as a youth by the constraints imposed by fences, Thaxton recalled a few nervous moments when he once shared a moss-laden live oak with a nervous bobcat while eluding a range boss hunting trespassers.

No less cautious when researching growth and development issues he confronts as an elected leader, Thaxton is known for his studious approach to the volumes of text each commission agenda addresses. Since elected to the position in 2000, he gradually has reduced his work burden from 80 to 60 hours per week. It helps that he owns neither a lawn mower nor a television, preferring the relative solitude of the home on North Creek he shares with his wife, Dru Greene, a trainer in the demanding field of juvenile offender probation and rehabilitation.

The demands of two such busy careers often reduces Thaxton to dining in restaurants, but he nevertheless lauds his elected leadership as a positive experience.

An avid kayak fisherman, Thaxton shows off a bull redfish caught in Charlotte Harbor.

“I absolutely love getting up and coming to work,” he says, finding every day different and claiming “there’s absolutely nothing about this job that I expected.

“When I took the job (in 2000, after four years as an appointed county planning commissioner and 13 attempts to get elected), people said it would be the most thankless job I’d ever have. I’ve found it just the opposite. By and large, people are very kind, very grateful for the service.”

That service has rewarded Thaxton with widespread recognition and numerous accolades for environmental advocacy that began as a founding member of the Ecology Club at Venice High School.

Seeking an activity that could offer lifelong satisfaction, Thaxton decided to study the Florida Scrub Jay, now primarily confined within Sarasota County locally to the Oscar Scherer State Park in Osprey. Having worked since age 14 in his family’s realty firm, Thaxton, at one time the youngest real estate broker in the county, recognized the inevitable conflict between land developers and scrub jays as both vied for the highest and driest
terrain.

Seeking the best source of information, he solicited the advice and support of the late Glen Woolfenden, PhD, world-renowned scrub jay expert and research ornithologist at the Archbold Biological Station in Lake Placid. Woolfenden wanted no part of the brash youngster.

“He kept pushing me aside. He saw no reason to waste his time with someone who not only had no credentials, but who also was a real estate broker,” Thaxton said.

Challenge accepted, Thaxton made it his mission to convince Woolfenden and his long-term associate, John Fitzpatrick, now director of the Cornell (University) Lab of Ornithology, of his sincerity. He made the two-hour drive on a daily basis, arriving at dawn to camp on the station’s doorstep, greeting the scientists as they arrived. Eventually, they relented.

Working in the Oscar Scherer scrub with Terry M. Hingtgen, a Parks Service environmental specialist,

Thaxton amassed more than 10,000 hours as a volunteer studying the population dynamics of the scrub jay. Eventually, the two researchers validated scrub habitat management guidelines and co-authored a technical paper entitled “Effects of suburbanization and habitat fragmentation on Florida Scrub Jay dispersal,” published by the Florida Ornithological Society in the May 1996 issue of the Florida Field Naturalist. The effort earned Thaxton the Irene DeLaby Award for outstanding volunteer service, adding a signal honor to a wall plastered with plaques.

Perhaps more satisfying personally was the support Woolfenden gave Thaxton’s application for a bird-banding master permit issued by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. That permit allowed him and Hingtgen to target scrub jay families and instead to document how their nesting success relied on controlled burns to limit the height of scrub growth.

Thaxton’s influence helped change the face of Sarasota County. An unusual sector plan condition stipulated that the Rivendell and Willow Bend developments limit depredation by house cats through the excavation of “cat moats” – broad waterways separating the park and home sites. Today, homeowners boast waterfront vistas overlooking a wildlife preserve.

The 462-acre Oscar Scherer preserve became a state park also through Thaxton’s efforts. In 1991, he promoted expanding the then-recreational area by the addition of 992 acres through the state’s Preservation 2000 initiative, qualifying it by area as a park. A rock pedestal bearing a bronze plaque memorializes the event in honor of Jon’s mother, Mary Thaxton, whom he credits for his passion for environmental advocacy.

His proudest achievement during that 30 years’ activity is the bond-supported, environmental lands acquisition program that has enabled public preservation of roughly one-third of Sarasota County’s native lands, from the urban Red Bug Slough to eastern ranch lands.

It hasn’t all been sweetness and light, however.

Most painful to Thaxton are the damaged friendships and lost respect that resulted from the county’s fumbled decision regarding a proposal to relocate the county fairgrounds to Twin Lakes Park. Controversial with neighbors and youth sports groups from the outset, the county commission rejected the plan in an unprofessional manner.

Nevertheless, he remains committed to the cauldron of local politics, professing no ambition for statewide office.

“Tallahassee is entirely dysfunctional. It’s dominated by special interests and no longer is truly representative,” he said.

“The way Tallahassee’s structured now, I wouldn’t be effective. My lobbyists are the everyday citizens I see in restaurants, church and at the produce counter.” And, according to Thaxton, while not shy about cornering their commissioner in those settings, his constituents remain generally gracious and appreciative of his efforts.

Concluding this interview shortly before the Memorial Day weekend, Thaxton was anticipating a brief respite from office pressures that offers challenges of a different sort – light-tackle spin-casting for lunker redfish in Charlotte Harbor from his kayak.

The boy who once wanted to be a high school biology teacher has found his niche. Jon Thaxton is grounded, content and doing what he does best – anticipating the contest. Don’t bet on the fish.

Allan Horton, a charter member of the Bay Soundings editorial advisory board, is a conservationist, land owner, rancher and former editorial writer for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.