Deb Henry Announces City Councilor Candidacy

“Yesterday I was the first candidate to register for the November 2024 election to be a City Councilor on Marco Island,” announced Marco resident Deb Henry, the featured speaker at the April 9 meeting of the Democratic Women’s Club of Marco.

“I have attended almost every city council meeting since the summer of 2022,” she said. “I am tired of seeing some councilors on the dais come unprepared, have their own personal agenda or grandstand for their future political gain. We need representation for all of the people of Marco.”

Henry went on to lay out her priorities as a potential councilor, beginning with bike safety. “We need safety classes for residents and visitors. We need small stop signs installed at the sidewalks along our main streets,” she said.   

The cleanliness and quality of Marco’s waterways is another priority for Henry. “After seeing several presentations at city council meetings, our water issues are not one size fits all,” she said. “Some canals need dredging, some canals need water movement. I am by no means an expert. We have the Waterways Committee for that, but we need to stop with the presentations and put something into action.”

Henry also proposed continuous sidewalks on every street, and a monthly newsletter for all Marco Island property owners. “Our city needs to keep us informed on events and city council actions, along with what the various city departments are working on,” she said.

Henry, who was born and raised in Philadelphia, pointed to her experience running Tracorp, Philadelphia’s only woman-owned specialty construction business, as indicative of her strengths as a leader. “I oversaw all of our operations but made sure I never asked someone to do something that I didn’t already know how to do,” she said. “I negotiated with carpenters, sheet metal workers and plumbing unions regarding contract and work requirements. I coordinated my company’s insurance, healthcare, pension plan and bank agreements. I was consistently the only woman in the room and I got things done!”

Henry told the audience she visited Marco for the first time in 2001, married her husband Brian on the beach in front of the Hilton in 2003, purchased their first condo in 2004 and the home where they currently reside in 2012, moving to Marco full-time after retiring in 2019.

“By my estimation, eighteen percent of our community is families with children attending schools on the island,” she said. “Marco Island is not a 55-plus community. It’s not an HOA. It is a thriving city and City Council needs to recognize all facets of our community.”

Henry said City Council members need to be more actively involved in the community, something she said she’s already doing, noting her volunteer activity with Noontime Rotary, Our Daily Bread Food Pantry, Little Pink Houses of Hope, the Marco Island Chamber of Commerce and Meals of Hope. Henry said she also sits on the Audit Advisory Committee for the city of Marco Island and is on the board of directors for Avow Hospice.

When asked in an interview how she expects to overcome the challenges of running as a Democrat in a heavily Republican city, Henry pointed to the elements of life on Marco that unite its residents. “We’re all Marco Islanders,” she said. “Most of us came from somewhere else but we all live here now and we have to learn how to live cohesively. We have to stop seeing black and white. We need to see gray. We need to try new things.   We can’t go back. We can only move forward.”