State Rep. Distict 65 Candidate: Carl Zimmermann

• State Rep. Dist. 65 Candidate: Carl Zimmermann
• Political Party: Democrat
• Age: 61
• Resident of: Palm Harbor
• Occupation: Teacher
• Personal: Married with two adult children
• Website: carlzimmermann.com

What do you see as the top three problems impacting residents in District 65? 

1. Property Insurance
2. Education
3. Jobs

How would you go about solving these problems?

• Property Insurance

Not the way they are doing it now, by raising rates so high that people are forced to leave Citizens. The way to bring down rates and secure the market is to bring in other major companies and end the “pup” companies. In other words, get Florida back into the national risk pool.

To do that we need to get back to the defined risks that the rest of the country’s rates are based on – a standard home owners policy. We can use the $6.5 billion Citizens has saved combined with the $6 billion in the state cat fund and create a wind/sinkhole cat fund and extend the pool state-wide. By separating that risk, the rest of the policy is exactly the same, (with the same risk model), as every other state in the country.

• Education

In a misguided attempt to improve public schools, the state has been creating the most overweight, burdensome, bureaucratic system we ever could have feared. The teacher evaluation process in Pinellas County schools alone is 45 pages long. The man hours to design, train and implement this program has been exhausting – and expensive.

Yet, if we really want to know how much our children are learning and whether the teacher is doing a good job, we need to look no further than a simple pretest/post test system. We test every child at the beginning of the year on their knowledge of a subject or grade level curriculum, we teach the prescribed curriculum and then measure how much they have improved at the end of the year. Student progress and teacher effectiveness can be accurately and easily measured. That’s the first bill I want to write.

• Jobs

Probably the most difficult thing to overcome from the loss of a job is the feeling of failure from personalizing it. No matter what the reason, it’s hard not to feel “why me” and have your confidence shaken. Then, you have to apply for other jobs and put on a happy face and sell yourself. Not everybody has that skill set.

My proposal has to do with businesses offering eight-week internships to those people. The hours would be 25 hours per week and the pay would be your unemployment insurance check. It puts the worker immediately back into a work environment and gives them the opportunity to feel productive immediately. It gives both the employer and the employee a chance to get to know each other and their abilities. If it works, they’re hired. I believe most people would be back to work in 8 weeks.

What makes you the best person for this job?

For the past 28 years I have been successfully employed as a TV/ broadcast journalism/filmmaker teacher at Countryside High School where I have prepared students to enter the field – and as many as a 100 have. They work as reporters, engineers, editors and producers all over the country. I developed a program that is one of the best in the nation.

Prior to that I worked as an advertising account executive in New York helping businesses be successful. And, while I did all of that, I ran two part-time businesses: a used-car procurement service and a video production company.

During the past 29 years, I have also been happily married and raised two grown children. My life has been rock steady and I have proven myself to be creative, innovative, dependable and successful.

My opponent has none of those qualities. His personal life and professional life have been filled with controversy, questionable judgments and failure. Both The Tampa Tribune and The Tampa Bay Times have referred to his tenure in terms of “disappointing” and “lackluster”.

Both papers have recommended me over him in their most recent reviews. (The Times 2012 and The Trib 2008). I will bring to Tallahassee fresh ideas, enthusiasm and the ability to work with everybody. Every candidate currently running north of Largo is someone that knows me well and I can call a friend – regardless of party. I will work closely with all of them to help solve problems that affect all of us.

Related-

• State Rep. Dist. 65 Candidates Tackle Issues at Forum
• Palm Harbor Election Guide 2012
• Florida’s Constitutional Amendments: What Yes Votes Mean
• East Lake Election Guide 2012