by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
After 21 years as a Navy pilot, Doug Conkey decided to retire in summer of 2005.
But not for long.
Within a few months of retirement, he signed on as a real estate agent with Watson Realty and then another opportunity presented itself - an open seat on the Clay County Commission. Well, that’s all it took for the campaign to start.
Conkey, who lived in the Orange Park area for 20 years, decided to take a shot and in November was elected to a four-year term as the Clay County commissioner for District 2.
“I’ve always been interested in public service,” said Conkey. “I grew up with it. My folks were very active. My mom and dad were very involved in the school board, planning board and the town council. My father was two-term mayor down in Briny Breezes in Palm Beach County.”
The excitement in Conkey’s eyes as he speaks about his new position is very evident.
“My enthusiasm is to be involved and to help people and then to combine that with my military experience,” he said. “I just want to continue my public service and it just so happened that the time frame and where I live worked out. I saw an opportunity and decided I was going to run. You have to seize opportunities in life to do what you love, so I’m really excited to have this opportunity.”
Conkey said Clay County is the victim of its own success and he wants to help smooth that out. Economic development and transportation are two critical elements he is going to focus on.
“We did such a good job of creating that niche as a bedroom community for Jacksonville that we are now suffering from that because people live here because of the quality of life and the schools, but we don’t have a good mix of what we need as a growing community which is residential and commercial,” said Conkey. “We have the highest percentage in the state of people who leave the area to go work elsewhere which compounds our transportation infrastructure inadequacies. So, my goal is to get economic development by growing businesses from within and bring in economic development so that we get more jobs established which helps the wage rate within Clay County go up. It also will help our tax base so we can address some of our revenue requirements. When we have a live here, work here, play here mentality, you have a much more robust successful community.”
Conkey plans to work with the landowners to make sure they have the land zoned properly and the local chambers to entice companies to move to Clay County.
“We need to recognize our weaknesses and understand our strengths and then market to that,” he said.
Conkey said Clay County has a very diverse and good work force and a good quality of life.
“We obviously have transportation inadequacies that we would be challenged to recruit a distribution center because we don’t have interstate,” he said. “The beltway is critical to our success. It is projected to be built in the next 10-30 years depending on the approval process and funding.”
He said the beltway is just one facet of fixing the transportation problems.
“We have many other roads that have not been addressed over the years and, with the new county manager, public works director and new budget director, we have a new staff and a capital improvement plan which over the next five to 10 years will help address the transportation problems. There are some roads that need to be built, other roads need to be improved, whether widened or improved for safety reasons and intersection improvements,” he said. “We’ve let growth come and are now trying to do the catch-up. That is the hard part right now, playing catch-up as opposed to it being a balanced act.”
As a commissioner, he says he will go about helping the community in a number of ways.
“My foremost responsibility in my mind is to serve the people of Clay County,” said Conkey. “I do that in various roles. I am dealing with infrastructure requirements that is part of the growth management which impacts transportation, taxes, working with the Clay County School Board to make sure that the two organizations that represent over half a million dollars in taxpayer assets work together to understand how our impacted growth impacts the schools. Typically when people come to Clay County, one of the first things you will hear is that it’s because of the school system so we need to work together to maintain that.”
He is also working on land issues, zoning issues and legislative issues.
Conkey said the previous commission dealt with poor structure and chain of command.
“Now, we have new people, a new emphasis on the chain of command and accountability that each person on the commission needs to understand,” he said. “I need to be working with our state representatives, state senators and federal elected officials to make sure funding is correct so that Clay County gets its fair share of school money, transportation money and grants. We are working to resolve insurance issues and tax issues. The things that are going to be big in the upcoming legislative session are insurance and portability of taxes.”
Conkey said he did get the Realtors’ endorsement, though he doesn’t think it really had anything to do with him being a Realtor.
“A lot of organizations have a defined interview process for the candidates,” said Conkey. “They ask very pertinent questions and try to make it a very defined process to standardize the interview process. Otherwise, the interview process wouldn’t have any credibility. The Northeast Florida Association of Realtors had their interviews at the Deercreek location. I went through that and was fortunate enough to get their endorsement.”
Conkey said he went into real estate because he knew others in the industry and it sounded like a good opportunity.
“It’s been interesting,” he said. “It’s different when you come from a structured military environment to the real estate environment. There’s a pretty big learning curve to establish a plan and dealing with people. Especially in real estate, you realize how little you control situations. It’s hard to control either side of the transaction, you are just a facilitator. If you give them the tools to make the right decisions, things can go smoothly.
“Some transactions are a smooth as a baby’s bottom and others as painful as going to the dentist. You just have to work through those and I believe if you go with a defined process and use strong fundamentals that you lay the foundation. Every transaction is unique and is going to have it hiccups. That is the nature of the business.”
He said he is going to come up with a business plan so that he can be a more full-time commissioner and a Realtor at the same time.
“There is flexibility on both sides,” he said. “It’s unique as opposed to a salary job or a 9- 5 p.m. job. Becoming a real estate agent has made me a better homeowner because I have a better understanding involved in the process and it made me a better legislator because now I have a better understanding of the issues that will impact home owners. From a strictly intelligence level, I feel I am better at both ends, just from what I have learned.”
Balancing his new position, family and real estate will be tough, but Conkey is up to the task. He is focused on learning everything he can about each job and doing the best job he can.
Conkey has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the Naval Academy.
He is very involved in the Clay County Chamber of Commerce the local Republican Party clubs and is member of the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors and its Southwest Council.
He has been married to Gretchen, a transportation manager with Buris Logistics, for 21 years. They have two children, Megan, 15 and Elizabeth, 13. When he’s not working, he’d love to find time to play more golf, but with his schedule it has been hard.
“When I was in the military, I played a lot of golf,” he said. “When I got out of the military, I played far less and during the campaign, I played none. Now my game is really suffering. My golf clubs are collecting a lot more dust than they ever have.”