Walking out of the old Tybee Island School Building, Kelly O’Brien said that while she was casting her ballot for the 2025 City Council she was looking for three things.
“Supporting a candidate that supports multigenerational gathering places for kids and other people was important to me,” O’Brien said. “Somebody who has a business background and can make hard decisions about finances is important to me, and long-term sustainability — someone who can think not just about the present but the future.”
O’Brien is one of the islanders who cast their votes for three new members of Tybee Island City Council, thinking along similar lines of the three issues that are of great importance to the island.
Incumbent Michael “Spec” Hosti and newcomers Cam Jackson and Nicholas “Nick” Hale were chosen as the three newest members of Tybee Island City Council. Jackson captured the most votes for the race with 725, while Hosti came in at 698 and Hale at 629.
Jackson is a fourth-generation, lifelong resident of Tybee Island. He is licensed as both a mortgage loan officer and a real estate salesperson, according to First Coast Mortgage. During the Tybee Island candidate forum, Jackson expressed that he believed there was room for improvement in regard to the number of short-term rentals (STRs) in residential areas. On the GDOT plan, he suggested, along with others, that GDOT put red lights at the crosswalks on U.S. 80, and supported the resolution passed earlier this month on the Tybee Island Maritime Academy.
Hosti has been on council since 2019 but has lived on the island for more than 30 years. Hosti was one of the only council members to vote against the short-term vacation rental ordinance to eliminate STRs in residential areas in 2024.
Hale thinks the biggest things the city needs to work on is infrastructure and fixing the water and sewer lines. Hale has lived on the island full-time since 2022.
Meanwhile, in Thunderbolt
Incumbent Mayor Dana Williams reclaimed his seat as the Town of Thunderbolt’s mayor, winning with 73%, or 417, of the votes versus Beth Goette, who served as the mayor for eight years before being unseated by Williams. Goette received 150 votes.
Williams said his focus for his next term is to continue the community building he started in his first term. Since he was elected, the traditional event of Blessing of the Fleet has been reimagined, green spaces and roads have been redone.
For the town council, all of the incumbents but one were re-elected to the six-person council. Brooks Barbaree, Bethany Skipper-Greer, David Crenshaw, Edward Drohan III and Larry Ward were all re-elected. Dawn Williams is the lone newcomer to the council and has never run for an elected seat. She has lived in Thunderbolt for over three decades.
Dawn Williams decided to get involved because she felt like some of the elderly people’s voices in Thunderbolt weren’t being heard, and she wants a future for Thunderbolt where everyone is engaged and active.
Barbaree, who captured 392 votes has been on council for just five years. He and his wife moved to the small fishing community in 2017. His focus on council has been sustainability and beautification. Barbaree’s vision for the future of Thunderbolt is more community events for the younger residents moving in, but continuing to focus on preserving the historic features of Thunderbolt.
Skipper-Greer, who captured 366 votes, has been on council since 2021.
Mayor Pro Tem Crenshaw, with 357 votes, has been on Thunderbolt Town Council since 2007, when he was approached by a group of residents to fill an empty seat. He’s lived in the town since 2002, and has seen it grow and change for more than two decades. Crenshaw said that he’s running for council again because he feels he can bring a lot of institutional and financial knowledge from running a business to the council to keep ushering it in a forward direction.
Drohan, with 355 votes, has lived in Thunderbolt since 2007, and at the end of the year will be completing his 12th year in a council seat. Drohan said the thing he can bring to the town council is attention and forethought. One of the initiatives he’s brought forward since being on council is making sure the town had a way to recycle, developing a composting program, which has evolved to include glass and cardboard recycling.
Ward, with 326 votes, has been on council for the last six years. He wants residents to know that he makes every effort to treat them with respect and vote for what’s best for them financially. He’s been involved with the beautification of the parks during his time on council and wants to continue working on infrastructure improvements if reelected.
Over in Garden City
Incumbent Gwyn Hall and political novices Michael W. Bruner and Christopher Figiel captured seats for Garden City’s City Council.
Hall has reclaimed his seat with 65.37% of the vote over Gary Monroe, who has now lost five bids for an elected seat in city government. Hall was born and raised in Garden City and has served on council for a total of 19 years. He served on the planning and zoning commission before winning the election to his seat. He’s running again because he said he wants to continue what he’s started in protecting the safety of the residents and businesses. He wants to build on the momentum of the new recreation complex.
Figiel narrowly won over Kimberly Tice, with just five votes to put him at 180 over Tice’s 175. Figiel moved to Garden City five years ago, and said that when he and his family arrived, they “really enjoyed the peace and quiet” of the city. But, Garden City is seemingly moving backwards while the rest of Savannah and Chatham County move forward, he said.
Figiel wants to institute some kind of accountability. “I’ve always been a believer in if you want to make a change, you don’t just talk about it, you do something about it,” he said. “You look around and you see all these vacant buildings and all these businesses closing on a monthly basis, and you want to make a change.”
One of the things Figiel wants to accomplish as a council member is to implement some sort of accountability mechanism for run-down, derelict buildings, such as a fee imposed on property owners who let their properties decline. The fee could then be reinvested in the community, or the property owners will clean up these areas, which he sees as a win-win.
Tice has served in the District 5 seat for 12 years total.
Michael W. Bruner ran unopposed for District 1. Bruner has held an appointed position on the Board of Zoning Appeals/Planning Commission for the last four years. Bruner is a business owner in Garden City, and his family has owned the land he lives on now since the 1960s, before it was annexed into the city limits.
Destini Ambus is the general assignment reporter for the Savannah Morning News, covering the municipalities, and community and cultural programs. You can reach her at DAmbus@gannett.com
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