'A better place to live': Panama City Beach residents elect Stuart Tettemer as mayor

PANAMA CITY BEACH − Having secured approximately 530 more votes than his opponent in the 2024 municipal elections in Bay County, Stuart Tettemer is slated to be Panama City Beach's next mayor.

According to unofficial results posted on the Bay County Supervisor of Elections' website, Tettemer defeated Mayor Mark Sheldon in the city's mayoral election. Tettemer secured 2,033 votes, or about 58%, to Sheldon's 1,496 votes, or about 42%.

Tettemer, along with Ethan Register, who ran unopposed to replace Phil Chester as Ward 2 City Council member, will officially take office and be sworn in on April 25.

"The goal is commonsense good governance," Tettemer said. "I am looking forward to working with everyone who wants to make PCB a better place to live. We may have slightly different ways of achieving that, but I'm happy to work with everyone.

"Thank you to everyone who has participated in the election process. Making your voices heard, no matter who you voted for, is essential to getting people invested in city government."

Tettemer, who has lived in Panama City Beach for more than three years, said too often the needs of residents are overlooked because of how much the area relies on tourism.

"I think voters have felt like they were getting leftovers, while tourists were getting the main course," he said. "Our elected representatives should be representing the people who live here. I think that's reflected in the results."

Tettemer said an example of city leaders putting tourists first was when the Gulf Coast Jam was moved a few years ago from the fall to summer. He said this brought even more tourists to an already congested time of year.

Sheldon is COO of Panama City Beach Entertainment, which oversees the popular country music festival known to attract thousands of visitors to Panama City Beach.

"It's just adding more and more tourists to an already busy season," Tettemer said. "The phrase I heard repeatedly (during my campaign) is people feeling trapped in their homes because of the traffic issues caused by all of the events during the busy season."

Along with focusing on residents, Tettemer said the city also should improve how it handles roadway reconstruction projects, such as those related to the Front Beach Road Community Redevelopment Area Plan.

Rather than allowing road work to occur during the peak tourist season, when traffic already is an issue throughout the area, Tettemer said such projects should be done during the offseason.

"A very common pattern for construction is you do (it) when it's not busy," he said. "Sometimes that means the evening. Sometimes that means whenever the offseason is. Sometimes you only have one season to do construction. If you live in a place with harsh winters ... summer is called construction season. We have mild winters here, but we do have a busy tourist season.

"Moving construction to the offseason, when we don't have to deal with all the congestion, makes a lot more sense."

Tettemer also noted that he opposes an ongoing initiative of a few years to build an offshore stormwater outfall in Panama City Beach. The project, which has been a source of controversy for many area residents, aims to combine current outfalls near Lullwater Lake and Calypso Resort and Tower, channel stormwater underground and deposit it about 1,500 feet into the Gulf of Mexico.

Construction on the outfall has not yet started, but the city in 2021 did receive a $21 million grant to help fund its costs from the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity's Rebuild Florida General Infrastructure Repair Program.

"From everything that I can tell, the reasoning for that offshore outfall ... does not match the risk that's being taken," Tettemer said.

Local elections: Unofficial results: Municipal elections in Bay bring new leaders to PCB, Mexico Beach

On Wednesday morning, Sheldon declined to comment on the unofficial results of the election. However, in Panama City Beach City Council meeting on April 11, he addressed his past four years in office.

"Looking back over the four years, it's amazing how much we've accomplished together," Sheldon said. "In this job, you have to think in decades and trust that you're leaving this place in the kind of shape that will make your kids proud.

"I believe I've done that, and there's nothing that I wouldn't have done."

This article originally appeared on The News Herald: Stuart Tettemer defeats Mark Sheldon in Panama City Beach mayoral race