Okaloosa County Republican
Sheriff Candidate
A. Sheridan Lowrey, II
Austin Sheridan Lowrey, II, became a property owner in Okaloosa County in 1998 and moved to the Emerald Coast shortly thereafter. Sheridan’s companies have been operating in Destin, Florida since 2000 and are currently celebrating 10 years at the same office in The Plaza, just a stone’s throw from the Destin Common’s Mall. In 2009, Sheridan was Recognized and Awarded Destin Florida’s first non-military HOMETOWN HERO AWARD at a Red, White and Blue Celebration. The Red, White and Blue Celebrations at HarborWalk Village are a weekly honoring of a local hero. The celebrations highlight the efforts of people like Sheridan Lowrey who go above and beyond, and have demonstrated heroism within their community, professional, or personal life. The heroes honored are people who bring out the best in all of us. Sheridan's award presentation took place at behind the Emerald Grande, overlooking the wonderment of the incomparable Destin Harbor & East Pass. His Hero's ceremony was accompanied by an aerial acrobatics air show over the Destin Harbor by four WWII era Warbird aircraft.
Sheridan Lowrey was born the youngest sibling of three, on May 24th 1968, in the birth place of the Civil Rights Movement; Montgomery, Alabama. He is named after his grandfather, Austin Sheridan Lowrey, Sr., who was a business owner in Fort Payne, Alabama. Sheridan is the proud son of Russell A. Lowrey Sr. and Alma Lowrey who now resides in a home Sheridan built for them in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. Sheridan was raised from very humbled lower middle-class beginnings and his family of five (5) lived in a tiny two-bedroom home at 803 Bowman Street in Montgomery, where his parents struggled to make ends meet, put food on the table and to provide a better future for their children.
He grew up tough, battling worthy opponents on the football field from first grade on, learning the victory of giving it your all and leaving nothing in reserve. Likewise, he tasted the bitterness of defeat, but always displayed superior sportsmanship and a southern gentleman’s honor by congratulating those that won fair and square. Sheridan also played baseball, wrestled, raced motocross & road-racing motorcycles, but these sports never seemed to eclipse his passion for football and its monumental reliance on a team effort to achieve success. Sheridan has always been a Cowboy at heart and during his rodeo days, he participated in various events including; bull-riding, steer-wrestling, calf-roping and bare-back bronco riding. As a youth, he participated in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) and to this day, deeply grasps the significance God’s Ten Commandments make in shaping the values of the greatest Nation in all of history, these United States of America.
Early on, Sheridan placed great value in the immense worth of an education and to this day has committed to learning one new thing every single day. This hunger for knowledge that builds unimaginable wisdom has been the driving force that propels him on a daily quest for greater learning and understanding.
However, after attending the Montgomery County Public School System from first to ninth grade, he knew that the government could not provide him the education that he desperately sought. His family lacked the financial resources to pay the high tuition for private schools and thus, Sheridan quit school at age fifteen (15) and obtained his GED from Auburn University at Montgomery without any study or preparatory classes what-so-ever.
Just as the billionaire founders of Apple’s Steve Jobs, Wal-Mart’s Sam Walton, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, General Electric’s Thomas Edison, McDonald’s Ray Kroc, Wendy’s Dave Thomas, Disney’s Walt Disney, CNN’s Ted Turner, Ralph Lauren, Hershey’s Milton Hershey, the world’s most successful diet program creator, Jenny Craig and American Idol’s judge Simon Cowell; Sheridan knew his education rested in his own hands, not in the government’s.
After abandoning the public school system, Sheridan Lowrey endlessly advanced his quest to self-educate himself and continue the self-employed hard work ethic he had established since the age of seven while mowing lawns. During his early & mid-teen years, he also worked for Hall Brother’s Dairy farm, while simultaneously delivering newspapers daily. He has plowed fields from dusk to dawn and while working on the farm as a Ranch-Hand, he gained enormous appreciation for the American Farmer. He also learned the unseen effects of corporate American’s capitalism when he witnessed Barber’s Dairy buy-out his best friend’s family business, Hall Brother’s.
While others assumed he would be a failure after quitting the structured formal education system, Sheridan held fast to his faith in the promises of God’s biblical scripture and overcame what some would call insurmountable odds to become a self-educated, self-made entrepreneur & business owner.
Sheridan went on to become one of the youngest real estate brokers in the nation and is currently licensed as a Florida Real Estate Broker and Florida Community Association Manager. Additionally, he obtained a Florida Mortgage Broker’s and an Alabama Home Builder’s license. His credentials are supported by evidence of multiple professional licenses as a Real Estate Broker, Certified Custom Home Contractor & Mortgage Broker, FAA Multi-Engine Private Pilot and over 1,384 classroom hours of professional education, , all paid by him, not the government tax-payers.
He retains expert knowledge in areas of business ethics, Fair Housing, Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), the Civil Rights Act, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Laws, executive business administration, finance, title & property insurance, principals of home inspection, property management, advertising & marketing, advanced mathematics, contract law, real estate brokerage, mortgage brokerage, real estate license law, advanced technology systems, mastery of software, interpersonal skills, commercial investments, business valuation modeling & analysis, commercial valuation via direct capitalization, time value of money and discounting, discounted cash flows, international customer relations, contract writing, architectural design, structural engineering, construction component failure analysis, construction material testing, structural bridge inspection, HAZMAT, OSHA certified 29 CFR, Part 1910.120(q) and 29 CFR, Part 1910.120 (e) Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Standard “HAZWOPER”, advanced concrete stress analysis and truss-joist-rafter span calculations.
As a licensed pilot, Sheridan Lowrey has achieved advanced training and certifications in Federal Aviation Regulations, Fundamentals of Flight, Theory of Aerodynamics, Aerodynamic Principals, Communications & Flight Information, Electrical Systems of Aircraft, Meteorology for Pilots, Interpreting Weather Data, Ground Reference & Dead Reckoning Navigation, Physiological Effects in Flight, Global Positioning System Navigation, Max Performance Take-Off and Landings, Multi-Engine Aerodynamics, Multi-Engine Operations, Multi-Engine Maneuvers, Engine Out Operations & Emergency Procedures, Intercontinental & Transoceanic Flight Planning, Airport Operations, Emergency Landing Procedures, Advanced Flight Maneuvers, Aeromedical Factors and Fundamentals of Aviation Instruction and Advanced Maritime Seamanship.
He has enhanced professional studies with additional training in computer science, electrical engineering, architectural design & drafting, small business development, strategic planning, quality customer service, strategic selling, project management, effective listening, and strategic negotiations, essentials of managing corporate cash, mathematics of the securities industry, principals of marketing, solutions for better corporate governance, branded customer service, methods for habit busting and secrets of winning big ticket sales.
Sheridan applied for and passed each of his state or federal licensure exams on his first attempt. He’s received the issuance of professional licenses as an Alabama Real Estate Salesperson, Alabama Real Estate Broker, Alabama Home Builder, Florida Real Estate Broker, Florida Mortgage Broker and a Florida Community Association Manager. Over his private business career, Sheridan has served as Chairman of the Emerald Coast Association of Realtors Grievance Committee which handles all ethics complaints and monetary arbitration disputes. Between 1991 and 2008, Sheridan has been an instructor teaching classes of new Realtors on Professional Standards and Ethics. He also served as the 2008 MLS Committee Chairman for The Emerald Coast Association of Realtors; comprising almost 4,000 members.
As a conservative, Republican, professionally licensed entrepreneur and business owner since 1989, Sheridan possesses the in-depth executive capacity to run Okaloosa County’s most important agency, the Sheriff’s Office. In obtaining the aforementioned six professional licenses, each required separate full criminal background checks by state department of law enforcement and the FBI; and passing stringent educational proficiency examinations. In 2007, he underwent and passed a full Department of Homeland Security background check.
Sheridan also holds a FAA Private Pilot License with High Performance Single and Multi-Engine aircraft rating endorsements. He also holds a Commercial Driver’s License (“CDL”) with every single endorsement obtainable from the DOT. With these two licenses, Sheridan can legally fly any plane with wings on it and drive any vehicle that’s got wheels.
His technical aptitudes includes all Microsoft products and Windows operating systems, numerous website & graphics design software, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash, Acrobat Pro, Investment Analyst ICC, ROI Forecaster, Business Valuation Model, RealData, Peachtree & QuickBooks Accounting, Chief Architect, AutoCAD, Open VMS, Oracle, SQLserver, dBase, C, C+, C++ and JavaScript.
Sheridan’s Partial Executive Management Experience & Charitable Services:
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Sheridan Lowrey has implemented a structured platform of techniques for processing and analysis of captured real statistical data that allows for further downstream preparedness and stability in changing economic climates.
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Sheridan Lowrey has utilized other relevant techniques to analyze all business functions of his companies, created definitive corporate vision, set the corporate mission objectives, directional guidance, defined critical success factors, predicted both seen and unseen risk factors, calculated measurable success benchmarks and action plans and conducted exhaustive SWOT Analysis of the company’s INTERNAL FACTORS (Strengths/Weaknesses) and EXTERNAL FACTORS (Opportunities/Threats).
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Between 2008 – 2010 Sheridan Lowrey served as a non-paid Board Director of a residential juvenile detention program & certified private high school, West Florida Wilderness Institute, which changed its name in 2009, to AMIkids West Florida, Inc. AMIkids, is a non-profit organization founded in 1969 to provide rehabilitative services for juvenile offenders.
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AMIkids operates 50 schools in 9 states (FL, GA, IL, LA, NC, NM, SC, TX and VA), including AMIkids Emerald Coast in Okaloosa County’s Fort Walton Beach, Florida; which is a non-residential Day Treatment program. In February 2012, AMIkids received the prestigious honor of being recognized by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in their Model Programs Guide for their successful results with their Day Treatment programs. This OJJDP designation officially makes AMIkids the only rated Day Treatment program in the nation working with at-risk youth according to the Department of Justice criteria.
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AMIkids West Florida provides a balanced level of high school education and life experiences designed to redirect a youth’s decision-making skills. The program’s philosophy is “Kids First” and strives to provide a world-class education to each student. Skill Streaming, Aggression Replacement and Moral Reasoning are used to help youth learn socially acceptable problem solving skills.
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AMIkids West Florida’s residential program operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with students residing in dormitories on campus. The children are committed to these programs for approximately 4-9 months and can be committed for as long as 36 months. The youth reside at the program and leave only for off-site, supervised program activities or approved furloughs. These children have been adjudicated delinquent by the Florida courts and typically have multiple misdemeanors or felonies.
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While serving as a Board Director of AMIkids West Florida, Sheridan Lowrey helped obtain certification of a mental health treatment program known as Behavioral Health Overlay Services (“BHOS”), which was developed under the Medicaid Community Mental Health Services Program in the State of Florida. BHOS provider facilities like AMIkids West Florida, have served children from the Florida Department of Children and Families Office of Child Welfare and Community Based Care since 2000.
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Youth in The AMIkids West Florida juvenile justice residence facility, who have persistent and chronic mental health conditions such as psychotic disorder, major depression or bipolar disorder, etc. and have risk factors related to suicidal gestures, self-injuring behaviors, physical aggression, violent behaviors, absconding, and sexual aggression; are able to receive treatment from AMIkids West Florida’s staff of mental health counselors.
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A recent 2010 evaluation report of Florida’s Behavioral Health Overlay Services (BHOS) by the Louis de la Parte Florida, Mental Health Institute at University of South Florida, found that children who did not receive BHOS services in DJJ programs were 62 times more likely to be placed in Statewide Inpatient Psychiatric Program at a cost of $406 per day, as opposed to the incredibly low $35 flat daily rate AMIkids West Florida provides. The study found that outcomes for juvenile justice involved youth who received BHOS were considerably better compared to youth who did not receive BHOS while in DJJ programs.
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Sheridan’s dedication to AMIkids and the BHOS program is geared to identify and treat the root problems faced by these children, so as to truly help restore lovable and capable children to their full potential and God given Destiny.
Sheridan Lowrey has never been convicted of a crime in his life and has maintained a spotless professionally licensed career since the age of 20. However, in 2010, he was the victim of the intentional false arrest by corrupt law enforcement personnel in the Okaloosa Sheriff's office; who themself, was actually convicted of a crime against underage children in Niceville in 1996, only four (4) years before being hired by the Sheriff's office. Pursuant to Florida's Jessica Lunsford Act, this corrupt Okaloosa Sheriff's Deputy is not allowed on school grounds when children are present, yet this Deputy is the sole recipient a $86,600 grant from the Florida Department of Children and Families for Specialized Law Enforcement of Domestic and Sexual Violence, which requires this deputy to respond to our schools when teachers make reports to Florida's Child Abuse hotline.
He was subject to a false arrest just like George Funti, who settled his law suit against Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office for $75,000. Sheridan and Mr. Funti were both falsely arrested in Walton County within just two months of each other on "NO BOND" warrants; then held for extradition, shackled in leg irons, waist chains & handcuffs; placed in a prisoner transport bus and sent to the Okaloosa County jail only to undergo another 2nd booking. Both men spent three days in jail for crimes they never committed. At his First Appearance Bond Hearing, Sheridan was released by an Okaloosa County Judge on nothing more than a signature bond, which could have been done without him being locked up for three days.
To ad further insult to the injuries both men sustained by the Sheriff's Office wrongful arrests, websites all over the internet have collected these wrongfully arrested men's booking information and mugshots from Okaloosa County Department of Corrections; and publicly posted it on numerous websites. To this day, Mr. Funti's and Mr. Lowrey's mugshots are still floating around the net, even after the Florida State Attorney has filed court documents stating that neither men committed any crime what so ever. Most all of these same mugshot websites have links on them; where for fees of up to $500 or more, they claim they can get these false arrest mugshots removed. However, even if someone were to fall for this possible scam, there is nothing that stops the website owner from posting the same defamatory information on another website, using a different domain name.
Through all this adversity, Sheridan's ingrained Christian faith, humility and strong character has allowed him to develop a unique perspective and understanding from both inside and outside our jails; of how to better serve his fellow citizens and protect everyone’s unalienable basic human rights to freedom.
Because of these abhorrent violations of his constitutionally protected civil rights, Sheridan recalled what one of our founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson, declared long ago….“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty…I have sworn on the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”
Furthermore, while locked up in jail for three days, Sheridan dwelled on the profound words of our former President Ronald Reagan, who called out to all Americans: “If not us, WHO?”… “If not now, WHEN?”
As such, rather than filing a law suit against the Okaloosa Sheriff's Office that would require the tax-payers to bear the cost of what we believe is Sheriff Larry Ashley's malfeasance, Sheridan has accepted the call to offer the good and honest citizens of Okaloosa County his service as your next Sheriff.
No longer can Okaloosa County afford para-military tyrant politicians to run the Sheriff's Office.
Sheridan is a member of Destiny Worship Center which has church campuses in Miramar Beach, Crestview and Freeport. He is a member of Mel & Mona Ponder’s Business Edge Florida and currently resides in Walton County, but will soon be moving to Okaloosa County where his businesses have been located since moving to Florida.
He enjoys fresh & salt water fishing, horses, hunting and the beach. Sheridan is a member of the Professional Association of Diving Instructors known as “PADI”, and is certified Scuba Diver with the following certifications: Open Water No. 0105200374 Advanced Diver No. 0107252842 Enriched NITROX Air Diver No. 0204539853
Sheridan is the proud and loving father of his 2 year old son, Joshua Caleb Lowrey; and will gladly give his life to protect your children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces.
He will protect family values in our community and by doing so, it will save many lives, ensure safety and restore peace to Okaloosa County. Sheridan will transform the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office from a reactive "law enforcement agency", into a proactive "CRIME PREVENTION AGENCY"....
As your Sheriff, he will draw a line in the sand to rid our community of drugs, child & sexual predators, thieves and murderers. It is unacceptable to only enforce the laws after our citizens have become victims of crimes! Sheridan will strive every day to PREVENT CRIME so that you will not have to needlessly become a victim!
Sheridan's campaign headquarters are located in his Okaloosa County based office at:
Sheridan Lowrey For Sheriff
4507 Furling Lane
Suite 214 at The Plaza
Destin, Florida 32541
Phone (850) 650-2353 ext. 102
eMail: SheridanForSheriff@gmail.com
