Hillsborough County features intriguing bottom-of-the-ballot battle

If Hillsborough County voters look waaay down at the bottom of their ballots in the November election, they’ll see something unusual — a contested race for a seat on the county Soil and Water Board.

And there are actually issues in the race, or at least one: the experience in agriculture legally required to serve on the Board. The candidates, Tyler Barrett and David Maynard, each questioned whether his opponent has that experience.

Barrett said he does because he works as a cultivation technician for a marijuana producer, grew up on his grandparents’ farm and worked as a farmhand when young.

Maynard cited working as a produce shipper and his experience holding a Board seat from 2010-2018 as a qualification.

The Board — actually named the Hillsborough County Soil and Water Conservation District Board of Supervisors — is part of a nationwide system created after the 1930s Dust Bowl disaster, which was caused in part by negligent farming practices.

“When the dust blew all the way to Washington and Congress could see it out their windows, they did something about it,” said longtime Board member Mark Proctor.

The Board helps farmers apply for federal and state grant programs for conservation projects and disaster relief. It’s also an information and education resource, including helping urban and suburban dwellers in “food deserts” establish home gardens.

There have, however, been moves in the Legislature to abolish the Boards as unnecessary.

Board seats are nonpartisan and members are unpaid, but occasionally, Proctor said, candidates will seek Board seats as stepping stones to other offices.

Barrett and Maynard aren’t exactly ideological opponents.

Maynard, formerly a Socialist Party member, is now registered with no party affiliation, he said. He said he’s “an advocate for education about the ag industry and assistance to small farmers — corporate farming can take care of itself.”

Barrett is a progressive political activist and campaign operative. He filed but dropped out of a City Council race in 2015 as University of Tampa junior, and ran unsuccessfully in 2023, campaigning on issues including expanding public transit and housing affordability, environmental protection and attacking crime through “root causes.”

Unlike most Board candidates, Barrett has actually raised some campaign money, $1,270, and spent $755, mostly on signs and phone banking.

Barrett acknowledged the Board seat could be a stepping stone for another office, but added, “I don’t want to go into it with any vision other than doing the immediate job,” of which climate change and environmental protection are important parts.

Proctor, a committed Republican, said ideological differences never matter on the Board — he said he can’t recall ever voting differently from Maynard on any issue when the two served together.