Biography from an interview with Focus South Lake Edition
March 25, 2007

David Yeager has been the subject of discussion, not only in South Lake, but also across the national news media. Although there has seemed to be a bit of controversy over his policies in the past, Yeager is only looking forward, and for him and the City of Minneola, the future is bright!

A little bit about David Yeager and his family -

David has a wife named Judy, a stepdaughter named Whitney, and a stepson named Austin. He lives in Minneola's Quail Valley Development right across from the City Hall.

David describes himself to be a lot like "Tigger". He says he is "kind of out there". He is the kind of guy who is always thinking out of the box. He has a vision. The City Hall was one of them. He used to go there for church and thought, "This would be a great City Hall." The Council said, "No, it's a church." He said, "No, it's a building with a church inside." We all need to look at David in the big scheme of things. He is a visionary, very active, always thinking. 3 o'clock in the morning, he is up thinking. That's what he does.

David has been the Mayor for two terms now and working on his re-election campaign for his third term. For those that do not know, a term is two years. David feels that 2 years is too short of time to make any real progress however, he strives to do all he can in the time he has been given. As we all know about 'the red tape', delays, and frustrations, David has remained optimistic and out-going throughout the trials and tribulations and his success from being the Mayor and doing his job. He has enjoyed every minute of it. "It's been wild, actually. It's been fast-paced and I kind of helped that along."

As David reflects back over his term, there are particular experiences that stand out in his mind. The 'ice thing' is the craziest thing he has done during his term. He took 640,000 pounds of ice from the State of Florida and brought it to Minneola, and gave it away and let the rest of it melt in the aquifer. There were tornados that struck Lake County and they called for ice. David Yeager delivered it immediately! It went on CNN and NBC. The State had ice and was paying $90,000 a month for it. The only thing he was trying to do was take the burden off of the State. Other cities, they were taking a truckload here, a truckload there. That's nothing. There were 225 truckloads. David took 15 truckloads, 70,000 gallons of it melted down, 640,000 pounds of ice and it received worldwide attention.

Another exciting thing that happened during David's term is called the Hills of Minneola. That is a project that was annexed in 2007. And the exciting thing is, yes, it has homes, but it has class-A offices, it has commercial, it has a turnpike entrance, it has school sites, and basically he's doing master planning and that is very exciting!

He has critics but he's ok with that. He is running now for his third term as Mayor. He hopes to retain that. If he doesn't, he was just thrilled with the privilege of having the time to do it now. It's been really that good for David. His staff has been incredible. He says they have had their ups and downs on the Council and there were obviously people who didn't like his vision, but he thinks that when he came on council, everybody kind of calmed down and they worked though a lot of things, and at the end of the day, they put all their feelings aside, and went forward. And to David, "that's what I do!"

David Yeager has a company called Incident Management Solutions. It was an idea. You won't go to the dictionary and find his business.

The State of Florida has two programs his company is involved with. The Open Road program and the RISC program associated with the turnpike. The RISC program involves getting an accident off the roadway in 90 minutes. They give towing companies the incentive to do that. Years ago, if a wreck sat there for seven hours, so be it. Well, the turnpike and the state figured out that created a loss of commerce going down the turnpike (you're not going down the turnpike if you can't get down it).

So David started taking pictures of the big truck wrecks. Then fluids started leaking out and he started cleaning them up and so that's part of that process. Now the State of Florida has an Open Road Program they put together for 90 minutes, so his concept is to do a full service. Every time someone asks for something on site, the next time he brought it. That's how he built his business. He went from a pickup truck to a $150,000 emergency response vehicle that responds in 60 minutes, not three hours.

Basically, he goes out and protects the assets of the trucking companies. He does health and safety. He does environmental work through his other company Environmental Solutions, LLC. At the accident site, IMS takes full photo documentation, which can be emailed to the involved trucking company at the accident site so that the company can see firsthand, the situation they face. He also will do cargo assessment so that the company can decide what to do with their cargo. He is picking up new customers because they understand what he does and realizes the need.IMS gets to the site, contains the emergency situation and cleans the site to return the roadway to its normal safe condition.

David Yeager ran four times for Mayor before he actually won on his fifth try. The first time he ran, David loss by 35 votes. He felt his contender was a strong one, and when he became the Mayor, David was happy for him and felt good about that. Then David ran again against another person who was a strong contender. He lost to her but gained a best friend. Ran against another lady, she won. Then he ran against another gentleman, and he won. Then he ran against him again, and beat him. David's concept was not to hide from growth but to embrace it and make it work for you. He worked really hard on all the campaigns. "It's exciting, and I have to tell you, if you went back to my hometown of Baltimore and asked them what I would be doing, the last thing they would ever think is I would be a politician!" David is a hard worker. He is diligent and determined.

The day to day solving problems is the most rewarding aspect of being in his position as Mayor and running his IMS Business. "You have to embrace the problem, look at it and then take it on."

David gives all his salary up; he does not keep it. He gives it to charity. So in the running process, he figures if he loses, he don't get it, and if he wins, he still don't get it. That's how it is. If he gives it away and the public embraces the issue that it's not about the money, he has a better chance of making a difference. He gives to Hospice, Haven of the Lake (that takes care of thousands of abused women), and to schools for new PA systems or necessity items. He does not want this to ever be for the dollar amount. He feels giving it away is a good thing.

Life's Philosophy

David lost his mom. His dad died when he was 20. His ex-wife was diagnosed with cancer, she went into remission for two years and then it came back. She was given one year to live. Within three days, they gave her six months to live. Within seven days, she died. There's nothing you can do about that. He does not care how much money you have. His philosophy is we really all need to take a breath and look at the bigger picture. Life is really too short. Some people really get torn up over little issues, and if you look at the bigger picture, you woke up. You're breathing. So many other people are hurting in so many other ways. Do you really have it that bad? Yes, we may have had a car wreck today, but no one's hurt. Yes, the roof came off the house, but there are some people who don't have a house.

David's best part about what he does is that he goes forward.

He is honored to have this opportunity. He has worked hard and promises to continue to work hard for all of us as the future becomes the present.