Polk County Commission, District 4

Arroyo: My top three priorities are public safety, smart growth, and strong infrastructure.

Public Safety: Support our Sheriff’s Office, firefighters, first responders, and emergency services with the resources they need to keep our communities safe as Polk County continues to grow.

Smart Growth: Protect property rights while ensuring development is responsible and properly planned. Growth should consider its impact on roads, water, public safety, schools, and our quality of life while protecting agricultural and environmentally sensitive areas when appropriate.

Strong Infrastructure: Address traffic and congestion by accelerating critical road projects and planning ahead. We must also ensure water, wastewater, stormwater, and other essential infrastructure keep pace with growth. I will work with our cities, state, and community partners to address today’s needs while preparing Polk County for the future.

Gresham: In addition to many other issues, I see the 3 top priorities for our constituents are, Public Safety, High Utilities & The High Cost Of Property Taxes.

Arroyo:  I am running for office because I love Polk County, I love serving our community, and I want to help make our county the best place it can be for future generations. Polk County has been my home for more than 25 years. It is where my wife and I met, where we have been married for over 20 years, where we raised our family, and where I built my business.

As a father, I want my children to be able to build their futures right here in Polk County without feeling they have to leave the area to find good jobs and opportunities. I want that same future for every family in our community.

My experience as a Haines City Commissioner, Vice Mayor, Mayor, and business owner has given me firsthand experience with the challenges and opportunities facing our communities. I want to bring that experience to the county level and help make Polk County a place where all of us can live, work, raise our families, and enjoy a great quality of life for generations to come.

Gresham: As of 2026, I not only successfully advocated 3 years for a long overdue traffic light at Ronald Regan & Heritage Pass in Davenport, which successfully went into full operation on February 17, 2026 but, I also decided to run for Polk County’s Board of Commissioners.

Other factors as to why I decided to run for County Commissioner is because myself & many others on both sides of the political fence have grown tired of seeing our local government disregard the wishes of voters, not listening, waste tax payer’s money, forget who put them in office, to stop the constant & needlessly paying of property taxes & increased property taxes which causes a negative domino reaction on many home/landowners such as, homelessness. Additionally, I decided to run for office to help our retired population & our young adults prosper. I’m running to help bring back stability/affordability to our communities/county & restore sensible spending by implementing a more improved system of “checks & balances”.  

I am also running so that we can improve/combat the high costs of utilities, groceries & insurance.  I also support the elimination of property taxes on the primary homes which will not take away the funding for our teachers and 1^st responders.  It just takes a proper budget & effective negotiations, not adding/considering Data Centers & other unnecessary building structures/land development which, can drive up taxes & push to retain property taxes which, also goes against the wishes of the voters. Further, our teachers & 1^st responders are currently financially struggling & underpaid. The property tax cut (Amendment 3) haven’t even gone on into effect yet; in fact, the property taxes have been continued to grow year after year & were greatly increased but, why are our teachers & 1^st responders currently still financially struggling?  This was just to name a few. I also am running so property owners don’t have to continue paying 2 different entities money to provide the same services & aren’t somehow “strong-armed” out of their properties by our local government. I’m running to prevent continued community division by some of our local leaders which, for many decades have conquered & torn down many good solid communities & their families.  I am running to preserve our natural environments & wildlife.  I’m running to make it make sense.

Further, although I’m new to running for a political office, I’m not new to being involved with getting things done within our communities, working across the board in a team effort to help bring about change that would improve the living standards for local families & their communities. In addition to negotiating, I had to travel for contracting purposes to produce better outcomes for communities.  I’m a people-oriented person, responsible, enjoy family life as well as, being involved with the people & communities. I pride myself on professionalism & would insist on nothing less from my county administrative staff members when engaging with our citizens.  And finally, I’m running for this office because I actually care about people, the communities & the budget.

Arroyo: Polk County Animal Control is operated by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, and I respect the Sheriff’s responsibility and authority to manage the shelter. The County Commission does have responsibilities when it comes to funding and county ordinances.

As a commissioner, I would listen to residents and animal advocates and look carefully at any serious issues brought to our attention. If the Sheriff identifies a need for additional resources, funding, or changes to county ordinances, I would review those requests and work with his office to find responsible solutions.

I believe in collaboration and accountability, but I also believe in respecting the responsibilities of independently elected officials. As far as I know, the Sheriff’s Office is capable of managing Animal Control, and if the Sheriff needs assistance from the County Commission, I trust that he will bring those needs to us.

Gresham: To address the issues at the PCSO’s animal shelter, once I’m voted into office, I would 1st evaluate the complaints and then work with the sheriffs department to see what laws/ordinances we may need to renegotiate, enforce more or even possibly add/amend to help address some of the pressing complaints.

Arroyo: I would consider a moratorium if needed. More importantly, before any data center is approved, we need strong regulations in place and must ensure that all major concerns, including water and energy use, noise, environmental and infrastructure impacts, are fully addressed. There should be no additional cost to taxpayers, and any project should provide clear benefits to Polk County and our residents.

Gresham: I would most certainly support a county-wide moratorium on hyperscale data centers because for one, data centers would put too much of a strain on the public utility service systems & our natural resources which, eventually the citizens would more than likely be expected to help pick up the expenses for the daily operations of data centers. Second, the data centers give off a continuous, non-stop noise that can become a nuisance for communities & may possibly even violate our county’s noise ordinance. Thirdly, data centers haven’t been in existence long enough for a full proper study to have been conducted on them to see if in the future, they would/could ever possibly eventually become some sort of health threat or risk for humans/animals domestic, wildlife or livestock.

Arroyo: I believe the current commissioners have done a good job overall. Polk County remains a strong, safe, and financially healthy county. The rapid growth we have experienced has created challenges with traffic, water, sewer, and other essential services, and these challenges are not unique to Polk County.

Going forward, I would focus on finding ways to speed up critical infrastructure projects. Now that we know this growth is here, we need to be proactive, prioritize the projects with the greatest need, remove unnecessary delays, and find ways to get projects started and completed faster. We need to continue building on the work already being done while making sure our infrastructure keeps pace with our growing county.

Gresham: I’m not certain how well it may or may not appear but, in the past 5 years I’ve noticed the commission appears to have no problem with securing the funds needed for infrastructure, growth planning & population management. However, I would have been more considerate of the voters wishes, thus avoiding much of the dissatisfaction many Polk County Citizens show as having towards the current county commissioners.