On the first day of filing for Lee County’s 2022 elections – which include municipal seats on the Sanford City Council – Democratic Sanford City Councilman Chas Post announced he will not seek a third term.

Post, an attorney with the Post, Foushee, Patton law firm in Sanford, was first elected to one of the council’s at large seats in 2013, and re-elected in 2017 without opposition. He said he was looking forward to focusing on his family and business after leaving office.

Post’s full statement to The Rant is below:

For the past eight years, it’s been my distinct honor to serve the City of Sanford and its citizens as an at large member of the Sanford City Council. Not every decision has been easy, but it’s always been my goal to do what’s best for all of our citizens.

When I ran my first campaign in 2013, I promised to revitalize, renew and refresh the things that make Sanford special by working to attract industries that would provide good paying jobs, empower communities to address root causes of crime and addiction, to provide first responders with the tools they need to keep us all safe, and to continue to support measures which positively impact economic progress in our city’s historic downtown. Look around you – I delivered.

Eight years later, we’ve attracted thousands of new jobs (along with hundreds of millions of dollars in new tax base investments) through our partnership with the Sanford Area Growth Alliance, creating opportunities for people to live, work, and build families in Sanford. We’ve formed a city commission made up of determined city residents to help us combat the opioid epidemic – a leading driver of crime in our community – and we’ve given our children constructive outlets by addressing and improving the quality of our city parks. We’ve continued to support our first responders – city police and fire – as they earned accreditations and honors while protecting the public in a way that’s the envy of so many other cities. And we have a walkable, livable downtown that’s absolutely thriving with businesses of every kind. I made those promises because I love our small city, and I love our small city even more so today because I’ve seen what its people are capable of when local government is willing to invest in them.

Now, it’s time for me to focus on other things that are just as important to me: My family and my thriving law practice. As my two sons get older, they’re involved in more and more, and my job as their dad – coaching their youth athletics, ensuring they work toward academic success, and ensuring they grow up to be true gentlemen – has never been more crucial. My law practice continues to grow, as the need for representation in court to defend the rights and liberties of our citizens is always present. Because of this, I think it’s time for someone else, someone with new ideas and new energy, to join the city council in my place. I’ll continue to be involved in civic matters through my participation in various foundations and non-profit boards, but I will not be a candidate for re-election to the Sanford City Council in the 2022 municipal election.

I want to thank everyone who had faith in me as a candidate in 2013 and 2017 – I hope you feel I have left Sanford better than I found it. I would also like to thank the staff at the City of Sanford. You all taught me so much over the last 8 years, and I will miss you. Not a day went by that you did not work tirelessly to ensure that the will of the council and the implementation of council votes were top priority. Our success is your success – it simply wouldn’t have been possible without you.

Finally, in my 2013 campaign, I made one other promise: That I’d stand up to bullies and others who engage in local politics as if it were a war instead of a way to serve their community. In spite of our numerous successes, sadly, some of the same negative forces so many have rejected since then continue to linger around to this day. I encourage all voters to look for citizen leaders who seek office with a positive vision for the future, and reject those who deal in personal attacks, character assassination, and divisiveness. When we work together, there’s no limit to what we can achieve.