Holly was clear on her promises in 2020, and she delivered.
Our future must start with an end goal in mind. Holly ran four years ago because she recognized that we weren’t ready for the growth the Suncoast Parkway would bring, and felt her background in strategic planning could be of help. If you drive off without a plan or goal in mind, will you ever get where you want to end up?
Her top campaign promises were a strategic plan, quality economic development, getting road maintenance on track, improving county communications, and protecting our waters. All have been substantially achieved!
Citizens must lead the way to ensure the future we collectively want.
Government strategic plans are virtually always put together by leadership – in this case, the BOCC. That’s crazy! That’s only five people, and we could never get the full power of a community’s thoughts on where we should go. Holly made a point to steer the Citrus County Strategic Plan to the citizens, at two open to the public town halls, via online entries, and with 40 citizen leaders from all aspects of the community at a two-day workshop. Commissioner and county staff input was limited to being regular citizens ourselves. UPDATE: our county was recently recognized with one of three strategic planning awards nationally, out of over 3,000 counties!
Our citizen-led strategic plan is already delivering results.
Her first year in office, against government headwinds, Holly got Citrus County’s first ever Strategic Plan underway. In 2022, citizens from all corners of the county put their heads together to lay out their priorities for the coming decades. It launched January 2023, accompanied by a new BOCC and County Administrator. We’ve made enormous progress since – just look at the 491 widening progress made in the last few months – a project that was stuck in government molasses for over a decade! What isn’t measured is usually not achieved. That’s why we measure it here.
What’s next? Setting us up to remain well-ranked for low taxes in Florida.
For the second year in a row, Citrus County was named the 5th best place to retire in Citrus County. For that to continue, we MUST continue planning for the future. What does that look like? Holly plans to live the rest of her life in Citrus County, and like most of you, wants the darn roads paved, have high-quality health care, and reasonably low taxes. Citrus County ranks exceptionally well for low taxes within Florida on Florida Tax Watch, but that will not continue without attracting higher-wage economic development, and reducing ad valorem taxes substantially in favor of fairer and more transparent methods.
Above & Beyond
In addition, Holly attends 6-10 government conferences annually for the immense learning opportunity they provide across a vast array of topics, from broadband, to water and sustainability, to workforce housing and economic development.
Experienced
For the last 30 years, Holly Davis has led a team to strategically grow clients' sales, from a wide range of industries.
This career is one where there are new challenges every day, and where you have to get up to speed rapidly on new topics. It's a background uniquely suited to be highly effective in working for the betterment of Citrus County.
Proven Leader
Her 30+ year career in strategic planning and communications has been evident, spearheading Citrus County’s first-ever Strategic Plan, and 2024 is bringing a whole new transparent communication to citizens.
Beyond her key initiatives, Holly’s worked consistently on solving generational poverty through Prosperity Citrus, attended state events to help sow seeds for economic development, lobbied Tallahassee for state funding for local projects, and served on many boards related to her duties on the BOCC.
Hometown
This upbringing gave Holly Davis an immense sense of duty, to protect the Nature Coast and our waters, as we also provide for the people who live here. One of our most beloved traits is our ``small town charm`` - it's absolutely critical to start planning not months ahead, but years and even decades ahead, to ensure we shape future growth to be something we love.
This upbringing also instilled in Holly a deep love and appreciation for veterans, as she was ``raised by five parents, three of them Naval officers.`` (Father, sister, brother.)