CLEARWATER, Fla. — Clearwater City Council candidate Jonathan Wade has been a lifelong native resident of the North Greenwood community, an area he says has been a disenfranchised part of the city for far too long.

“We’re looking at trying to revitalize the community because this is where a lot of African Americans grew up historically, and we don’t mind people coming in and integrating, but we don’t want to be pushed out and lose our communities,” he says.

Wade is running in the open District 5 City Council race that also includes Aaron Smith-Levin and Lina Teixeira, but he emphasizes he’s not really running against them at all.

“They’re going to fight about whatever they’re going to fight about,” he says. “It’s easy to say what you’re against. I’m for the City of Clearwater. I’m for bringing a fresh perspective, I’m for neighborhoods. I’m for just leveling the playing field and caring more about people than property.”

Smith-Levin is a former Scientologist who is critical of the Church’s leadership. When asked his thoughts about the Church of Scientology, Wade says it’s a “tough” subject. He’s appreciative of their efforts to help end open-air drug dealing in his neighborhood, saying, “if they’re going to come down and help clean up my community, I’m going to work with them.”

But he’s also aware of the intense criticism offered by former Scientologists like Smith-Levin and says that what he has heard is disturbing.

“I’m not for anybody being mistreated, brainwashed or any of those things, so I stand against stuff like that.”

Wade, 66, is currently the pastor at St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church, but he’s had a lengthy career in helping people as a licensed clinical social worker and addiction counselor. If elected, he says that he’d like to see the city create a program to help those who have been incarcerated get job training and work with employers who are willing to give returning citizens a second shot. That’s personal for him, as the city of Clearwater and the Veterans Administration gave him a second chance after he was arrested for the sale and possession of drugs in the 1980s.

But he did get a second chance to make something of his life, and he seized the opportunity. He started his journey back by attending St. Petersburg Junior College, where he was named the Most Outstanding Student at the Clearwater campus. In 2005, he was named one of only seven people in the nation to receive the Achievement Against the Odds Award.

At his office on N. MLK Jr. Avenue, there are framed photos of him with former President Bill Clinton, former Florida U.S. Senator Connie Mack and Congressman Mike Bilirakis, and one with former Florida Governor Lawton Chiles. Wade received a full pardon for his actions by Chiles and the Florida Cabinet in the mid 1990s.

When asked what he’s learned from his time with working with people with addictions as a counselor, Wade says it’s resiliency and support.

“If you get the right people behind you to believe in you and support you and who hold you accountable, then you can almost overcome anything.”

While recounting an award he received in 2010, he stops and says that he didn’t appear in person to collect the honor. That’s because it was after he was charged with battery against his wife, an incident he calls “the dumbest mistake I ever made.”

The upshot of that incident resulted in being sentenced to a two week suspension at his job, followed by six months of domestic violence counseling. He says his life went “belly up” at that point, and he ended up dropping out of public life. In the middle of his depression, he says he was transformed by reading the book "Sifted" by Wayne Cordeiro, which inspired him to become a pastor.

“Some people aren’t going to like me because of some of the things that have happened, but there’s enough people who will understand and will be able to sympathize with things happen. People make mistakes. And God gives us a second opportunity. Sometimes third chances, and I’m definitely deserving and in need of one.”