IN THE SPOTLIGHT: David Mulicka
Commissioner with love for island, county
When David Mulicka (muh-lik-ah), newest member of the Lee County Board of County Commissioners, was a kid he asked his dad for an allowance. David was attending a prep school in Fort Myers and many of his classmates were getting as much as $20 a week as spending money from their parents. David thought his dad should give him one of those “allowance things” too. Those other kids did not have John Honc (honch), Jr. as their stepfather, though, David came to realize.
“Yah, No. That’s not how life works,” David recalls his father responding. “You don’t get money for nothing. But I will show you how to earn it. I’ll put you in business and I’ll show you how it’s going to work.”
David was 12 at the time, but it was the beginning of an approach to life, success and self-motivation that has only grown as David has matured. “So, he bought me a Sarlo lawnmower (a professional landscapers’ lawnmower), and a Sears Craftsman weed eater, and he said, ‘You can go out and push that mower as far as you can, and sell all the work you can get, and you keep all the money. But your payback to me is you have to keep my lawn up, as well as any of your best customers – for free. That’s your payback.’ And in short order I was making $150 a week, and that was a lot of money back then. So now I was the wealthiest kid in my class because I earned it myself. And that kind of spirit of making money and seeking your fortune, I think, taught me a lot of responsibility at an early age, so I am grateful for that.”
David is also grateful for the good fortune to have been born and raised in Southwest Florida and Lee County.
“I’m a life-long resident of Lee County,” he said. “And I’m really grateful that my ancestors chose Southwest Florida and Lee County decades ago, because I’ve had a wonderful life growing up here. I grew up in North Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Pine Island. The Honc side of the family comes from my stepfather of 49 years, John Honc, Jr. My birth father, Gary (Mulicka) was a Navy veteran, and unfortunately, died when he was 26 years old. I was just 7. But he actually built the home we lived in in Cape Coral, and he built the Grab Bag Grocery and Deli in Bokeelia, shortly before he passed. I helped him put the letters on the sign on the roof.”
David recalled that the store had a sub shop in it, and the “Honc boys” kept coming in for sandwiches.
“This one guy kept asking my mom out, and she kept saying ‘no,’ she wasn’t going to marry again. This was a couple of years after my father had passed. Then, one day my aunt told my mom: ‘Go ahead, it’s just Chinese food. I’ll watch the kids.’ And then four months later they were married. And 49 years later they still are!”
David continued: “So, I kept my birth father’s name, but I’ve been part of the Honc family ever since. My Grandpa Honc still lives on the property he was born in Bokeelia, so I grew up fishing, scalloping, tarpon fishing – tarpon, trout, redfish, snook – all those things, and as a kid, we had little boats, and we could go out and fish in Charlotte Harbor. We used to catch so many fish when I was a kid that we would sell them to the fish shop at the marina and we made money having fun. That was a great way to start your life.”
His fishing also brought him to Boca Grande, back when the phosphate docks were still in use. “I learned how to scuba dive when I was nine, and we used to go spear-fishing and my dad would take us to the phosphate docks. The boats were still coming and going back then, and so we would always go diving and see the big jewfish, and tarpon, and snook and everything that are under those docks. It was just a great way to spend time out there.”
As he grew up, he continued coming to Boca Grande.
“I just love spending time out there, ‘cause it’s a beautiful place. My primary draw, I have to admit, is the fishing. I love to be on the water. Fishing and diving are my happy place. I think Boca Grande’s a beautiful, special area, so when I see any angst out there, if I think I can be part of that, I want to help. Because it’s personal to me.”
David acknowledged that Boca Grande is not his district, but he noted that he was elected as a county commissioner. He explained: “When we run for office, we run county-wide. So, I had to campaign in all four corners of the county so I’d be prepared for the position. Right now, everybody in Boca Grande can vote for all five seats, so if you know that it takes three votes to make change, then you have five people you can lobby for your cause and sway three opinions. And it can be any of the three of us. You have an equal audience because you can hold all of us accountable because you vote for all of us.” He believes this is a good system. Each commissioner represents a specific district so that all parts of the county are represented.
“So, just to clarify,” David explained, “all five of us are all single-member residency, so we each live in the district we represent. So we would be the closest point person for your neighborhood, so to speak. But when we run for election, we have to run county-wide, to earn the majority of all the votes in Lee County. So, I’ve been a life-long resident, and I do business all over the county, every week, every month, so that is very helpful. But I have to listen and learn the perspectives of people in Lehigh, and Bonita Springs and Fort Myers Beach, Boca Grande, Cape Coral. And each of them has their own nuances, whether you are in North Fort Myers or Estero. So, you have to listen and learn when those matters come before us – for the new bridge, the new road, the new park, whatever the situation may be.”
David is happy to be part of the team of commissioners who can help find solutions to problems that arise.
“I love Boca Grande,” he reiterated. “I’ve gotten to be friends with some of the business owners out there. When I hear the 100-year families out there, I am one of them, too. So it means a lot to me to see that the historical fabric of this island is protected. I love the history. The old Miller’s was incredible. To see Whidden’s and all that area is just such a beautiful, special place.”
He spent 16 years in the car business. He did well, but he was never satisfied with working for someone else. Again, it was his father who helped him find his way to entrepreneurial happiness. John Honc Jr. owns Honc Marine, and he suggested David work for him.
David followed that advice and for the last 23 years, David has owned Honc Destruction, one of four Honc companies in the Fort Myers area.
“I’m a demolition and recycling contractor,” David said, “and I had no trucks, no excavators and no employees but me when I started. I saw that demolition was the thing that was the most frequent request. I started off doing 19 houses my first year, and now I average almost two million square feet a year of demolition all over Southwest Florida. We’ve become the leading demolition and recycling contractor. And the root of my success in this business is that we recycle and salvage everything we can from our sites.”
He said he “doesn’t pay to throw away money.” Rather than filling up landfills, he recycles or donates.
“We give away all kinds of appliances,” David said, “and everything we can, we try to find somebody else who can use it – even landscaping.” He added: “People are always happy to hear that Habitat or Goodwill or Salvation Army got their water heater or stove.”
David is married to State Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka. There are fun details about their love story, but space is limited here. They have been married about five years, and David said Jenna “is lovely inside and out.”
“I have two beautiful sons,” David adds. “I have a 21-year-old son named Charlie. He has special needs; he has autism, but he is in an independent living/work program with Family Initiative, Inc., here in town, and he’s doing well. I’m very proud of him: big, strong, happy, healthy boy. He just doesn’t have conversational language. He’s just a wonderful young man. And then we have a soon-to-be-2-year-old, named Hunter.” Hunter carries history in his name. His middle name is Powell, after Jenna’s ancestor who was among the first group of commissioners in Lee County in the 1870s. “Hunter is a seventh generation Lee countian,” his father brags. “I don’t know how many of those there are! He’s gonna be a good one.”
They stayed on the island for part of their honeymoon. They have been to lots of Gasparilla Inn events and participated in fishing tournaments – with Jenna winning a Ladies Howl at the Moon tournament one year.
“We’ve seen wintertime there and summertime there, and it’s always a place you can go and relax and feel at peace. It’s a different time, you know. It’s so great not to have a stop light, and just so many cool old shops and you feel like you’re in a part of history. And it’s just great, beautiful old Florida,” David said.
