Watch on YouTube · Listen on Buzzsprout · Follow on Spotify · All episodes
Welcome to the Hustle & Heat Podcast! 🔥🎙️
In this episode, we sit down with Oleg M. Lisitsyn, who is running for North Port Commissioner, District 5.
We discuss Oleg’s background, what motivated him to run for office, his vision for the future of North Port, and the issues he believes matter most to local residents. From responsible growth and infrastructure to public safety and community development, this conversation gives voters an opportunity to hear directly from a candidate seeking to represent District 5.
Whether you’re a longtime North Port resident or new to the community, this episode offers valuable insight into one of the candidates looking to help shape the city’s future.
If you enjoy conversations with local business owners, community leaders, and public officials, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
👍 Like the video
💬 Share your thoughts in the comments
🔔 Subscribe for more episodes of the Hustle & Heat Podcast
Interested in being a guest on the Hustle & Heat Podcast?
📧 Email: hustleandheatpodcast@dubzbbq.com
Automatic transcript from Buzzsprout. It may contain errors.
0:00 What’s up, guys, and welcome back to another episode of Hustle and Heat Podcast. This is episode 34, and my name is George, your host, episode 34. This episode focuses on giving Northport residents an opportunity to hear directly from Mr. Oleg as he discusses his campaign priorities, leadership philosophy, and vision for the city’s future. The goal is to have a respectful, informative conversation that helps voters better understand the candidate beyond campaign matters. Materials. Mr. Oleg, welcome to a podcast. It’s an honor to have you on.
0:33 Yeah, thank you for the invitation. Love to be here.
0:36 Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do and why you do it.
0:39 Yeah, so uh immigrant kid came here when I was 10 years old, family immigrated from uh Russia, USSR. I think it was somewhere in there in the breaking point. Uh we originally immigrated to the state of Washington, so basically grew up there. I went to elementary, middle school, high school. Uh married my high school sweetheart there. Uh we have five children, five boys. Five boys? Yeah, five boys. I got so lucky. Yeah, just uh typical, typical normal guy, you know, kind of after high school, was looking for, you know, where should I go? Wanted always wanted to get, you know, get into school and you know, do some higher education, but ended up working for my dad’s business. And then, you know, economy went down, so I had to look for something else, so got into another business. So it kind of, you know, throughout life went through different things, and then COVID happened, like with everybody else’s life. So after COVID, we decided that we need to move states. Washington was just getting Washington State, Pacific Northwest, uh, got a little bit just way out of hand for us. So we immigrated here about five years ago. Uh came to Florida, settled in Rotonda West, uh, because during 2022, it was just impossible to get anything to rent here. So that was like the only available house. And then two years ago we bought a house in Wellington Park. So here we’re here now. Um started living in Welland Park, you know, getting to know people more. Just throughout the five years, we we kind of you know always used the Northport was kind of the closest center of business from North from Rotonda West. So as we kind of got here talking to people, uh kind of started looking at the city politics and things and thought, you know what, there’s a lot of a lot of things that I didn’t like what’s happening, and I think uh people like me with with kids, with just families, did not have a lot of representation there, did not have a voice behind the five commissioner tables. So I’m like, you know, I need to get in, talk to a couple people, a couple of people said you definitely need to go because just you know, I like to get confirmation from the outside, you know, am I doing something right or not, or just these just stupid ideas. So I got some confirmation from people around me, said you definitely look like the material for a commissioner. So December I uh registered and joined the race for Commissioner District 5.
2:51 So what does your voice sound like? What are you standing for?
2:54 Uh standing for uh, you know, every every I think every family here here uh feels when when the tax bill arrives or the new assessment arrives every year. We look at it and you know every hundred dollars, two hundred dollars a month really hits pocket, especially a family like mine. Uh we have five boys, uh mom is a stay-home mom, raises kids, cooks, you know, food for them, so it’s one income. And I mean every couple hundred bucks counts every month. You know, it’s like I’m I’m not living a high life, you know, but so I’m I’m kind of thinking, you know, every uh families need a break tax-wise. Uh businesses need a better understanding of how we can as a city support you guys, you know, like small local businesses. And then it’s just kind of looking at what’s going on in the city, I think there’s a little bit more of uh conservative, thoughtful ideas that can be implemented that can help out the city growth, uh, understanding of the citizens, because a lot of there’s miscommunication, misinformation kind of going on. So yeah, that’s kind of multiple things. It’s not like a one single idea or or I you know thing that I’m running for.
4:05 Okay. What’s the big what do you think the biggest challenges other than taxes Northport faces today?
4:11 Uh Northport, I think um I think there’s a there’s a division between the the the city leadership, the city staff, and the citizens. And I think there’s a little divide of where they want to be and where the citizens want to be. So Elaborate on that.
4:26 Where do you think the officials want to be? Where do you think the citizens want to be?
4:29 So it seems like the officials are trying to build like a like a metropolitan place here, like like like a big city, big things, something ginormous and huge. And to do that, uh taxes have to go up, things have to go up, and you know, it’s kind of it’s like this ginormous city, which which Northport is not even built to be like that. And a lot of citizens are saying, well, hold on, hold on, hold on. You know, like you guys do this, and you know, I’m standing in 30 minutes in traffic just to get to the highway. So I think you know, things like that, there needs to be more uh more thoughtful going in there. And then uh like recently they just took a huge section and turned it into commercial. Uh citizens you know woke up one morning and all of a sudden their residential lot became a commercial lot. Uh even though the city kind of did their due diligence per lot to notify, which they had to just notify in the newspaper that this is what’s gonna happen. But a lot of a lot of people, you know, who reads a newspaper? So things like that. There’s this kind of distance between the citizens and the city, and it seems like city is just going to.
5:37 What’s your philosophy? What do you think?
5:38 So, my philosophy uh that if we are picked by the citizens, we are the voice of the citizens. So, like I’m not just going in there because you know I have this great program that I want to push to. No, I’m going in there because I’m representing of the citizens. So communication is a huge thing. Um I started actually, I think where that’s that’s where you guys kind of you know saw me that I’m I started a blog where I want to just speak to citizens, okay, here’s what I’m thinking, here’s what I’m doing, comment back, let’s let’s have a dialogue. Recently we’re in Sarasota, and um Greg Stuby is a representative, uh congressman, he came in and he was saying that a lot of times these town halls, that’s where I get a lot of my ideas to put through. So I think there’s this understanding that you know the city officials are these you know super smart guys that know better than the regular Joe. But the other way around is the regular Joe is the one in the trenches that’s making the money, paying the taxes, seeing things that are not wrong. So this regular Joe needs a voice, he needs to speak out, and these city officials need to listen to him because sometimes what they want, this guy’s not ready to pay for it. And one big thing was, you know, uh uh the police station. They wanted a really big police station, they put that up for a vote, and citizens say, you know what, we don’t want to vote for that. We I mean we’re we’re not we’re not gonna pay for that. I support police, but ultimately, if I’m paying the bill, I should have a say in it. I understand that, you know, like if you tell me what what what do you need in a good police station, I probably won’t tell you the whole list. You know, the guys know what what needs to happen. But at the end of the day, I think citizens need to be better educated, better informed, and better heard.
7:17 100%. Yeah. So that has been a big thing about the police station, but yeah, yeah, you know, it just ultimately comes down to they do need a bigger spot.
7:24 Yeah, oh, I understand. I understand.
7:26 I think you’re also right where they’re not informed, but I feel like citizens are just hateful people.
7:32 Hateful?
7:33 Yeah, very like they freak out. Like you look at all these like city groups and stuff like that, and they’re always just hating on like the higher-ups and stuff, and it’s just like who are you?
7:43 Yeah. So I worked, uh, I worked in a church for 10 years. I was actually a associate pastor. So I was on church staff for six years. So uh in a church, there’s you know, there’s an elder group or or you know, pastors that decide. And obviously, I do understand that any group, I mean, between three of us, we probably have three different opinions on on any certain project. So, what do you do when there’s you know two groups with different opinions, and you’re the commissioner, like, are you gonna take a side?
8:10 You can’t.
8:11 You can’t. So, what I learned in a church uh uh setting is when there’s people with different opinions, you need to lead. And the way you lead is not you take a side, but you say, Look, guys, I heard you, I heard you, I heard you. This is the best direction where we’re gonna go, and then you explain to each group why this is the best, and that’s that’s where leadership comes in, where you lead not to go with a certain group, but you lead and say, Look, this is what’s best for a city, and then you explain your thoughts. And I think that explanation is kind of like, oh, they’re just stupid, they’re against us, we’re not gonna no, no, you need to explain to these, you know, people that are against that. 100%.
8:47 Yeah. But I I just feel like a lot of people are are don’t want to listen to in the same sense. I could be wrong, but I think I think they don’t want to listen because they don’t feel hurt. Yeah, but how are we gonna make them feel heard?
8:59 So uh I I how we we need to make them feel heard is we need to we need to open up and give provide a space or platform with where they can speak or where we can speak, where we can where we can listen to them.
9:13 And what if they still don’t understand?
9:15 That’s where leadership comes in, is where you you you explain, you you know, you tell them, you tell them as much as possible. And then you so what I also learned that sometimes by explaining a position and letting that other side critique your position, you actually have to go back and reassess your position. Because sometimes you see things that you never looked at and they’re and they never thought about it. But when you explain your position, they’re like, but you’re missing this part. So I think um the commission and the people, it’s not two separate camps that are fighting against each other. It’s we’re representing the people. And if the people ultimately see a group, you know, most of them are saying, no, no, we’re not gonna do this, we need to listen to them. And maybe as a commissioners, we just step back and say, you know, people do not want to do that right now. Well, we need to either figure out another way uh or or you know, or work with them and provide something different. But I also what I you know look at a couple of city commission uh meetings, um sometimes, you know, like the city manager, he does his research and things, and then he provides and says, Okay, here’s the two different options. And it seems like these are the only options that we can, you know, the commission can vote on. Well, that’s not true. There’s there’s more other options that we need to put on the table, not only these two that are favored by the city staff or or the or the so there needs to be all these options laid out, and I think when people see that, okay, there’s an option to be against, there’s a kind of middle option, there’s an option for. If we as commissioners look at all those options, say, okay, we looked at everything, people will be much calmer because they’re gonna say, you know, they saw my position, they saw my option, they looked at it, they thought about it, here’s why they’re not gonna go. So I think people are gonna feel hurt.
10:53 Yeah. I think you’re right. Thank you. You’re welcome. I got no. I think I think that’s a good thing. I think uh we’re not gonna win a lot of people, uh all the people, but you know, yeah, maybe a different approach will win more people than are being won right now. Yeah, yeah. Um so yeah, that makes sense. What side are you on? You think we should get a map become a big metropolitan area, or you think we should stay the same?
11:21 So I I think uh uh we can definitely not bring bulldozers and just bulldoze everything down and build something new. You know, there’s obviously already a structure we put in here, the roads, the the zonings and things. I think we gotta take that into consideration what’s already here, and then see how we can we can build off of that and grow that. Uh so I I think that’s why a lot of people are kind of getting concerned when you know huge chunks of residential all of a sudden turn into commercial, and then you know, you live in a backyard, there’s a four-story apartment complex. I think that’s what kind of gets people mad because like I lived here, this is my perfect house. I talked to a lady, they’re like, listen, we lived in a house for 25 years. Like we raise our kids here, we have our you know, first baby walking, first steps, and then there’s this huge complex in front of us. We can’t, you know, we can’t live that. I think that’s that’s what kind of gets people. So uh there’s a huge area where it’s zoned for commercial in Northport, you know, the Yorkshire uh Boulevard area there. Uh we need a couple exits off of I-75 to blow that area up as a commercial and light industrial. So I think that’s where we need to focus to put all our effort in that area, not just go in here and take a you know chunk of residential and turn into commercial because we’re running out of commercial space. So I think you know that that shift because that Yorkshire area that’s already put in the plan as our commercial and light industrial area. We just need to push harder to get that thing going. So that’s that’s kind of where I’m you know looking for. The rumor is it’s gonna go within like six months to a year. Is that true? So I so when I was talking to one uh previous commissioner, she said, uh, look, it it things don’t happen as fast as you want them. I mean, sometimes you work on a certain project and it takes five to ten years to get something done. I understand. So I I understand that that’s not a that’s not my brand new idea. That’s been an idea in the works for a lot of time. Um I I know there were some um complications between if you know if the federals are putting the you know the exit, then we have to build some infrastructure for that exit. So I I think there was a little bit of tension in that, but uh as a commissioner, if I come in, I want to put a big emphasis to get you know to push that through. Do you know, do we need to go to state legislators, do we need to go to our senators and kind of you know put more pressure and say, guys, we need this to happen as soon as possible. Plus another thing I’m I’m thinking is we need we need jobs in the city northport.
13:41 100%.
13:42 Uh because people I talk to, I mean, they all travel for work. Well, yeah, and one post I saw online, the guy’s looking for a job, he’s like, I need to get at least sixteen dollars an hour. And I’m thinking, sixteen dollars an hour, you I mean, you can’t even survive on that. You have to live with somebody renting probably half a room. So I think more higher, more higher paying jobs, and I would probably start trying to get some kind of factory, some kind of you know, smaller businesses to get in here to actually provide jobs, not to just give us revenue, commercial revenue, but actually provide jobs that will employ our citizens. I think that’s very important. Because, like you said, you know, that I have a lot of friends. Some friends I have go to Tampa every single day. That is just crazy, ridiculous, right? But they can’t only afford to live here, but they go to Tampa.
14:26 So think about the impact if they had jobs here on the local economy. Absolutely. It would be tremendous, man. Absolutely.
14:33 I mean, imagine a small factory comes in with, say, 50 employees. They’re paying uh into our our you know, into the city, the employees, you know, they they make money, they live here, they spend them, you know, in businesses locally here. It’s only a win-win situation. Absolutely. 100%. Absolutely.
14:52 100%. You know, and I think that’s a big plus.
14:55 And I’m happy, you know, like the hospital’s getting built. Actually, met with the director that’s that’s managing. It’s awesome, it’s a good thing.
15:01 We’re you know, we’re those are getting a debt while it’s too.
15:04 Yeah. Those are the things we need to invest more and push through, not just for for benefit of you know, getting a impact fee for the city. No, no, no. We need to think about like how I would think, you know, if if I had two projects on, you know, it would be like a warehouse which employs ten people and a factory which employs sixty people, I would go with the factory. Just because you this is gonna have a greater impact on the city. That’s 50 more people. Yeah, exactly. Employed.
15:32 And who knows what that 60 will turn into, you know?
15:35 Exactly.
15:36 And if it’s already starting at 60 instead of 10, I mean it has more potential to get bigger.
15:40 Here’s another thing that I really, really want to, you know, put emphasis on. Uh, you know, my older son is 20 years old. And I kind of, you know, living through that age where where those young guys come up and they’re like, listen, we like we don’t know what we want to do. I mean, what do we do? And then they start, you know, go go hire for a job and they put them, you know, wash dishes in the kitchen, which is not bad. It’s a good starting. You know, they need to buy my fish relationships. They need to low. But I’m walking in Welland Park and I met meet these three guys like between 20 and 19, and I’m talking to them, I’m not like, okay, guys, I’m a commissioner, I have a hundred million dollars. What would you want me to build for you guys? And they’re like, and I’m like, you well, think, start thinking. What would you want for younger guys here? So we ended up talking, like, you know, I’m outside, you know, like a muscle gym and thing, you know, like California on the beach and stuff like that. But ultimately, I wanna I wanna be able to explore ideas is you know, can we provide something where you as a business owner can can grab a young guy that’s in a training and say, okay, just you know, shadow me or something like that, where you know they don’t start from the low, but they can actually go into like you know, business owner level and train and learn there with the idea that they can go and open businesses, not just start low, not just start a $16 an hour job and stay there and get stuck, but something much higher where we can show them because I think it’s all about vision, right? I mean, if a young guy shadows you and says, you know what, I want to be a restaurant owner, or I want to do, you know, I want to sell I want to have a company with 10 employees, if he can picture that in his mind, it’s gonna happen.
17:13 100%.
17:14 But if he’s kind of beat down and he, you know, he looks for a job and says, At least uh can I get at least 16 bucks an hour? That’s already uh, you know, that’s ceiling very, very low in his mind. So I, you know, I I have a heart for those young guys because I have you know five of them in my house. So I’m always looking for opportunities, you know, where the pros and cons of being a father.
17:33 Exactly.
17:33 Well, where can I where can I position my boys not to just give them an easy life, but actually give them something so high that when they look at them, they you know, like shoot for the stars, you know, kind of idea. So that that’s I think why I would I would want to do something in Northport. And even now I see there’s some very uh influential people that come and just introduce themselves and meet me, and I’m like, okay, that’s a good guy that I can you know see it, you know. Met a lady in the Wallin Park, she has a master’s degree in medical administration, and I’m you know, and I talked to her, she’s like, I’m trying to get a job, I cannot get a job for like $23 an hour. And I’m like, send me your resume. So she sent me the resume, I forwarded to that guy that I met that’s running the hospital building. I’m like, hey, dude, met this lady. I don’t know if he can help her or not, but I’m just kind of passing it along. I think that’s what commissioners need to be more involved in. You know, how did she get the job? Not uh so he replied back to me and said, Listen, oh, like I don’t hire people, but I’m certainly will pass it on to our HR director. Maybe that would be a cool story if she did. Yeah, that would be a super but I you know I that’s kind of my heart is not not you know not building a statue of liberty here in the middle of 41. But my heart is how can I help you know a single person in the community here, and how can I help the community as a whole by doing something that’s gonna impact a lot of people in a positive way.
18:56 What about the businesses? How are you gonna impact the small businesses?
19:00 So uh small businesses, uh I would I would want to you know sit down and interview and just talk to businesses, people like you. And my question is, you know, what do you see me as a commissioner, how I can help you? Because you as a business owner know more uh what what you’re struggling with, what you need to do. And uh I had already a couple businesses reach out to me uh with ideas like you know the assessments, the impact fees. Uh some some get a little bit more favoritism uh than the other ones, and they’re you know they’re direct competitors and just hits them right in their bottom line, and he’s like, dude, I can’t survive, but this guy’s doing very well, but we’re in the same business, everything the same. So I would you know we we need to make a platform from the city where businesses can compete with each other, but on on the same level, and on you know, same rules for everyone. It needs to be fair for everyone to compete. And then we as a city, let’s say if we make your job you know hard or or we tax you, you know, over tax you, well, you close this place down. We just lost jobs, we just lost a good place for the citizens to come and hang out. So it’s it doesn’t benefit anyone if if let’s say you close down because your you know your brown bottom line just diminishes. So yeah, I would I would, you know, I I understand every business wants to make more and every business one does not want to pay any taxes. Uh you know, that there’s there needs to be some logic in that, but if if our business is down or if we if we just drive them out of the city, this is not okay.
20:28 I understand. Um, what differentiate you from the other candidates?
20:34 Yeah, so um one of the things one of the things big biggest difference is uh I think Northport used to be this this hub where most people came to retire. So it was more like older population, really calm and simple. And I think in the last probably five years, there’s so many people with families and kids. You know, our age came in here. So it’s a little bit different uh demographic, and we have different issues and different problems that we’re dealing with as uh you know as citizens. So I think that’s that’s one of the big differences, just the view of everyday life. Um second thing I would say that uh you know my my opponent uh he he he claims to be one thing, but he’s doing some things that are not totally with with what he’s saying. And couple, I mean, just one one very bright thing was the budget. The budget keeps expanding, keeps going up. That means our taxes are going up. Uh and when there was a uh there was recent talk about you know that November we’re gonna vote on the homestead tax exemption, if they’re gonna go through or not. So automatically I think the city of Northport is gonna lose, if that goes through, they’re gonna lose $8 million of revenue. So there’s, you know, from from from the cities, there’s this fear-mongering, we’re gonna lose our police department, we’re gonna lose the you know, emergency services and things like that. But when you listen to the CFO of the state, he’s saying, look, the cities are just getting fat. They’re just they’re just expanding like crazy, and there’s no way nobody can stop them. So I I think you know the the commissioners right now, they’re not doing a really good job to actually saving or cutting the budget back. Uh it seems like it’s expanding, expanding, expanding, and we get to carry that burden on our taxes.
22:21 Okay. Um what would after your your uh if you were elected and after your time, what would Northport look like the day you left after you’re done said and done?
22:36 Yeah, I would I would definitely hope that we can bring at least you know four or five factories here, uh, have an impact on the workforce that that can be employed, you know, citizens. Uh I would I would hope that we have that exit in there in the Yorkshire and a few commercial developments in there already going through. Uh I think that’s a huge thing. Um I would definitely want to have much lower taxes, and I would much want to have a little bit more of a conservative government in Northport. So staffing-wise, uh just view on what we do, how we do, where we spend our money, where we don’t spend our money. I would hope to see uh much more happier citizens, and I would want to have feedback that you know what, if you called Oleg, he listened and he acted.
23:25 Alright. Do you have a closing message for the Northport voters?
23:31 Uh I’m Oleg, you guys see me online. Uh, I truly you know, my my I’m I’m an open book. You probably noticed that sometimes we don’t edit our videos and things like that. So I’m open for your comments, open for your suggestions, I’m open to talk to anyone. I’m in Walland Park, so foxtail coffee, I’m usually there pretty much all the time.
23:51 You got a Dutch Brothers coffee in your hand.
23:53 Oh, yeah, there was no foxtail there. You’re cheating today, man. No, I actually had my foxtail in the morning, so two cuffs. Hey, I’m from uh Washington State. They they drink like four cups a day. You have to I get it, I get it. Yeah, but yeah, I’m just you know, I’m I’m here to to speak, to listen, and to represent the families of Norfolk.
24:14 All right. Well, I hope you guys got a little informed and got a little better insight on Mr. Oleg over here. We appreciate you guys watching. If you like this video, please comment, like, and subscribe. Thank you.
Hustle & Heat is brought to you by Dubz BBQ, named Best BBQ Joint in Florida in 2026. Catch the next episode over smoked brisket and ribs, or stop by for happy hour, daily 2–6 PM and all day Thursday & Sunday.