Meet Your Polk County Board of Commissioners (May 2026)
If five commissioners make decisions for nearly a million people, you would think we’d know their names. We mostly don’t. So let’s fix that, because they are not interchangeable, and they don’t all come from the same place. (If you’re new to how Polk County government works in the first place, start there and come back.)
The Short Answer to who makes all the decisions around here
There are five elected commissioners on the Polk County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) who meet on the first and third Tuesday of every month at 9 a.m. inside the County Administration Building at 330 W. Church Street in Bartow. You could say they are basically running the county, but every municipality has elected commissioners who sit on regional boards and committees and help steer those decisions based on their own city or town’s priorities. In these meetings, they set the budget, approve contracts, write rules, and shape what Polk County will look like for the next generation. The decisions being made right now will determine whether the growth is smart, fair, and livable.
In one easy sentence: your city’s commissioners run things at the city level, and the county BOCC runs things at the county level. The BOCC also carries Polk’s biggest fights up to Tallahassee, where we are essentially elbowing 66 other Florida counties for the same pot of dollars, the same policy attention, and the same regulatory wins.
The Longer Answer
I introduce to you…the Polk County Board of County Commissioners (May 2026).
Becky Troutman represents District 1 in Lakeland. Before she was a commissioner, she ran two small businesses — one in school psychology, one in interior decorating — and spent six years on the Polk County Planning Commission, which is the body that hears every major land-use case before it ever reaches the BOCC. She also volunteers with Guardian Ad Litem and the United Way of Central Florida. If you have a question about how the planning system actually works inside Polk, she is the commissioner who has been on both sides of the table. She was first elected in 2024 with about 63% of the general election vote.
Rick Wilson represents District 2 in Bartow. He’s a second-generation rancher and Polk County native who was first elected in 2018 and re-elected without opposition in 2022. He’s also in the Polk County Sports Hall of Fame, which tells you how long his roots have grown here. His term ends this year.
Bill Braswell is the Vice Chair and represents District 3, which covers Auburndale, Winter Haven, and Lake Alfred. He spent 22 years in the Air Force, runs a blueberry farm, and served on the Planning Commission before joining the BOCC. He is the commissioner most likely to be talking about water — because his district sits in the part of Polk where every new house adds pressure to a regional aquifer.
Dr. Martha Santiago is the current Chair and represents District 4 — Winter Haven east, Haines City, Davenport, Lake Hamilton, Loughman, Four Corners, and the Polk side of Poinciana. She was first elected in November 2018 and re-elected in November 2022. She is the first Hispanic woman elected to public office in Polk County, a retired Polk State College provost, and owner of Leadership Consultants, LLC. On May 11, 2026, she announced she is not seeking a third term — meaning her seat is open in this year’s election.
I’ll say it here first, that seat is going to matter.
Michael “Mike” Scott represents District 5 in Lakeland. He’s a Lakeland native and civil engineer who lives in the Kathleen area and runs a trailer business in north Lakeland. He holds a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering and two master’s degrees from the University of South Florida. He was first elected in 2024 after running on slowing the pace of development until U.S. 98 and other road improvements catch up. His current term runs through 2028.
That’s the room. Five people. And two of those seats are up for election this year — Wilson’s, who could run again, and Santiago’s, who has already announced she won’t. The seats they hold get decided by you, IF you show up.
What you see at the Tuesday morning BOCC meeting, however, is only the closing argument. The real conversations happen days earlier, in committee rooms most residents have never heard of — and there are six specific things you can do to be part of those conversations while they still matter.
Meet Your Polk County Board of Commissioners (May 2026) is an excerpt from the original article, How Polk County Government Really Works — and Why You Should Pay Attention Before Decisions Are Made, Not After.
