Updated April 22, 2025 at 03:30 PM ET
Mayor Walter Welch and Commissioner Jacob Fletcher assumed their new roles in the Alachua City Commission Monday night. Their induction ended the longtime tenure of the city’s —only— former Mayor, Gib Coerper, who received a standing ovation from attendees as he stepped down.
But shortly after the commission certified the election results and unanimously selected Commissioner Shirley Green Brown as Vice Mayor, a resident raised concerns about the election’s integrity.
Mitch Glaeser, co-developer of San Felasco Tech City, said he’d been made aware of “double digit instances of ineligible voters casting ballots,” and soon planned to share the information with the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections, the Florida Division of Elections and the FBI.
A spokesperson for the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections said Tuesday afternoon the office had yet to receive an official complaint.
“As heartbreaking as it is for me to share this with you, it is my civic duty to inform you,” Glaeser said. “By maintaining election integrity, we respect our voting rights and protect our democratic future.”
Glaeser did not say how he learned of the alleged violations, but said that prior experience running for supervisor of elections in Alachua County and acting as statewide legislative coordinator for the motor voter bill gave him “extensive knowledge of our election laws.”
The alleged voting violations could be impactful in what was a narrow mayoral race. Walter Welch defeated Gib Coerper by a margin of just 21 votes.
Environmental advocates who criticized the City Commission’s rapid pace of development celebrated the change in leadership.
But little seemed to change as the newly elected commission faced a development-heavy agenda.
The commission voted in favor of final plats for three phases of the Fletcher Trace development, totaling 111 lots on 44 acres east of County Road 235. Phases two and three passed unanimously, while Commissioner Fletcher was the sole objector to phase one.
“Do you think the elections were about nothing?” James ‘Jim’ Currington asked commissioners as he warned against a different agenda item: rezoning a five acre parcel of land near U.S. 441 from farmland to commercial. “I ask you to look at this as your first opportunity as a new commission to send a message.”
Soorya Lindberg, whose neighborhood abuts the property, expressed concerns about how the rezoning and future development could impact roads. The change would increase traffic on that portion of U.S. 441 beyond 100% capacity during certain times of day, according to the staff's report.
“I know we’re getting tired,” Lindberg said as the meeting approached its fourth hour, “but this is also my life.”
The commission approved the rezoning by a vote of 4 to 1, with Commissioner Fletcher voting against.
