Over Before It Begins – The Race For Niceville Council, Mayor Decided.

The books are closed, and Niceville will have two candidates for City Council to replace outgoing elected officials Sal Nodjomian and Carl Donahoo.

Former Councilman Heath Rominger and Planning and Zoning Chairman Doug Tolbert will represent residents starting in March after municipal election day.

Rominger, a Navy veteran, general contract, and business owner, previously served on the Niceville City Council for two terms. He is married and has two children.

Tolbert will also join the council in March. Tolbert was the other finalist for the open seat vacated by Abner Williams when he resigned last February. He lost a coin toss to now-councilman Doug Stauffer, which ended in Stauffer’s appointment with the council to fill Williams’s seat. Stauffer has since led the charge to end the making of such decisions based on a ‘game of chance,’ which the charter currently requires.

Niceville Mayor Dan Henkel was also up for re-election. He is unopposed in his bid to serve his second full four-year term.

How Council Elections in Niceville Work

Niceville has five council groups. Any resident of the City of Niceville can run for any group seat, regardless of the location of their homestead inside of city limits, as all seats are at large.

Each council term is for four years.

Elections now occur in March to align with other municipal elections around Okaloosa County and are run by the Okaloosa County Supervisor of Elections. In past elections – Niceville held them in the middle of August and performed their elections without help from the Okaloosa Supervisor of Elections office.

Charter Amendments

While the contest for city council seats two and four are effectively decided at this point, residents can change the charter in at least one way. Residents will vote on whether or not to allow a person employed as the city clerk to live outside of city limits. Currently, the acting city clerk, who took over after the retirement of Dan Doucet, does not live in the city limits. Doucet served the city for more than thirty years after a more than decades of service as a member of the United States Air Force.

The other charter amendment will let voters decide whether or not a ‘game of chance,’ like the one that decided between Dougs Tolbert and Stauffer for an open council position, should continue to decide the case of a split vote between council members on appointments – or if the mayor should be given a vote in that case.

Both amendment proposals would need a simple majority to pass.