President

A former member of the Florida House of Representative (1985-1992), Mike Langton has had an extensive career in Florida State and local government. While serving as a member of the Florida House he had tours of duty as Chair and Vice Chair of the Advisory Council on Intergovernmental Relations, Chair of the Oversight Committee, Chair of the Committee on Children and Youth and Deputy Majority Leader. He was recognized for his service by numerous statewide organizations including the Florida League of Cities, the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Florida Taxwatch.

His grantsmanship career began 30 years ago as a mayor’s aide in which he assisted in writing the grant and administering the City of Jacksonville's first CDBG Entitlement Program. He also served as a Special Consultant to U.S. HUD, National Science Foundation and Stanford Research Institute, Palo Alto, CA on national housing trends and non-service approaches. He has successfully obtained over $90 million in grant funds for Langton Associates local government clients since 1981. He holds a B.A. in Political Science from Florida Atlantic University.

Langton is an innovator in devising funding schemes for non-profit agencies. In 1997, Langton capped a two-year campaign to include a provision for $10 million capital demonstration grants in the federal welfare reform legislation. He then successfully procured the entire $10 million for Goodwill Manasota and Goodwill Arcadiana. He has procured three $5 million Welfare to Work grants for Goodwill North Florida, Goodwill Middle Georgia, and Goodwill San Antonio. Langton currently consults with the Florida Goodwill Association and three individual Goodwills in Florida. In total he has consulted with 23 Goodwill agencies around the United States.

Langton has had extensive hands-on experience in the area of affordable housing, and has worked directly in programs such as the HOME program, the Community Development Block Grant program (Entitlement and Small Cities), Homeless Continuum of Care, Hope 6, and the State Housing Initiatives Partnership Program. Langton assisted Pasco County in the development of its first Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy, (CHAS), and wrote the program description for Volusia County's HOME program. Langton provided technical assistance to two County governments, Bay and Baker, during the implementation of their SHIP programs, including preparation of the SHIP plans, Incentive plans and organization of their local partnerships. Langton has a thorough understanding of the HOME Investment Partnerships Program and was the project manager for the Florida Housing Finance Agency contract to provide on-site technical assistance for HOME grant recipients and has provided HOME technical assistance state-wide through the Florida Catalyst Program for DCA.

Langton coordinated the City of Jacksonville's application for federal Empowerment Zone designation. This effort involved recruiting, organizing and facilitating a 200 person partnership for preparation of a Strategic Plan. Community redevelopment activities include: preparing a paper on "Establishing a CRA in Florida" and an Action Plan for External Funds Procurement for Delray Beach CRA.

Langton’s organizing skills were called upon during the first cycle of the US Department of Transportation’s Job Access and Reverse Committee Grants, when he successfully facilitated Community Stakeholders (over 50 in each) in Broward County, Palm Beach County, and the City of Jacksonville resulting in the only grants awarded in the State of Florida, totaling nearly $3 million. The following year Langton assisted Orange County/City of Orlando’s transit agency Lynx in submitting their application.

Langton’s contacts in state, federal and local government are vast. Langton has been a featured speaker to the Florida Association of Counties, the Florida League of Cities and Florida Redevelopment Association and has served on the steering committees of statewide campaigns for U.S. Senate, Governor and Cabinet officers. President Clinton appointed Langton to the Rules Committee of the Democratic National Convention in July of 1992 and was appointed again by Vice President Al Gore at the 2000 convention. Langton also served as a campaign coordinator for Northeast Florida for the Clinton/Gore campaign of 1992 and 1996. He serves as Vice President of the Florida Democratic Leadership Council and is an advisor to the Field Office of the National DLC. In the year 2000 Langton served as the Gore/Lieberman Chairman for Northeast Florida.

Langton founded Langton Associates, a Public Affairs Consulting Firm, in 1981 and has served as company President since that time. In 1999 he founded LB Jax Development, a Housing Development Company, focusing on the urban housing market in Florida cities.

Mr. Langton is the firm’s specialist in fields of:

• Housing & Community Development
• Homeless Continuum of Care
• Transportation
• Workforce Development
• Welfare to Work