Voters in Pembroke Pines and Lauderhill will head to the polls subsequent month for very completely different elections, with one metropolis selecting two elected officers and the opposite deciding on a hefty bond challenge.
They’re the one Broward County municipalities of six scheduled to carry elections March 10 having them. In Hillsboro Seaside, Lazy Lake, Lighthouse Level, and Sea Ranch Lakes, at-large candidates coasted into workplace unopposed.
Pembroke Pines
In Pembroke Pines, Broward’s second-largest metropolis by inhabitants, Vice Mayor Mike Hernández and Commissioner Thomas Good hope to fend off challenges and safe four-year phrases representing Districts 4 and 1, respectively.
Hernandez has one opponent: Elizabeth Burns, an occasion planner who unsuccessfully ran for Mayor as a first-time candidate in 2024.
Burns, in the meantime, faces two challengers: former Pembroke Pines Police Sergeant Jim Henry and Dennis Hinds, a banking, finance, actual property and insurance coverage skilled.
Hernández, a public relations and authorities affairs professional, first joined the Metropolis Fee by appointment in Might 2024 and received the appropriate to serve the remaining two years of the District 4 seat time period that November.
His priorities, if re-elected, embody opposing larger electrical utility charges, combating the development of a trash incinerator throughout the metropolis’s bounds, decreasing site visitors congestion and bettering the town’s fiscal duty, parks and public security.
By Dec. 31, he raised about $49,500 and spent $22,000. His donations got here from quite a lot of industries, together with development, engineering, insurance coverage, waste providers, tow-trucking, authorities relations and promoting.
Notable contributions included $1,000 from former U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala, $1,000 from constitution faculty government Maggie Zulueta and $100 from dentist Mike Good friend, who’s working to succeed state Rep. Mike Gottlieb in Home District 102.
Burns, a present member and previous Chair of the town’s Range and Heritage Advisory Board, shares a number of of Hernandez’s platform priorities, together with the anti-incinerator, site visitors and public issues of safety.
She additionally vows to again the event of extra inexpensive housing, assist army households, champion small companies, advocate for extra senior and particular wants providers, improve roadways for cyclists, and promote tradition and variety within the metropolis.
She raised and spent about $3,8000 by New Yr’s Eve, all by means of private checks and $300 in self-contributions. One $250 test got here from former state Rep. James Bush III of Miami, who misplaced his seat in 2022 after being the one Democrat within the Legislature to vote for GOP-backed abortion restrictions and Florida’s “Don’t Say Homosexual” legislation.
Good, a U.S. Navy veteran and municipal utility providers administrator, is working for a 3rd straight time period within the District 1 seat he received in 2018, which he took after serving as an elected South Broward Drainage District Commissioner.
His job historical past consists of working as Public Works Director for the Cooper Metropolis and Miramar, and Assistant Metropolis Supervisor for Deerfield Seaside. As an elected official, he’s centered on delivering cost-effective municipal providers, bettering transportation security and mobility, and including to the native inexpensive housing index.
Since submitting for re-election, Good has raised near $32,000 and spent about $6,700. Donors included a mix of South Florida residents, out-of-town contributors and varied enterprise and political pursuits. Amongst them: a number of Doral-based hospitality firms, a firefighters’ union, a Tallahassee-based consulting firm and state Sen. Rosalind Osgood of Tamarac.
Good additionally loaned his marketing campaign $6,000.
Henry, who retired from the Pembroke Police Division in November 2023 and beforehand served within the U.S. Coast Guard, has run a totally self-funded marketing campaign to this point, pouring $7,500 from his checking account into his marketing campaign coffers by means of Dec. 31.
He’s a first-time candidate, however he believes his a long time in service have given him ample concepts for how you can enhance Pembroke Pines. His three priorities, if elected, can be to enhance the “horrible” however fixable site visitors considerations all through the district, handle dysfunction at North Perry Airport and improve native faculties with profession and mentorship packages.
Hinds brings ample volunteer expertise to the race, together with service on the town’s Planning and Zoning, Range and Inclusion, and Stroke Consciousness Boards. He additionally works with the Miami Veterans Hospital, homeless shelters and meals pantries, in keeping with his marketing campaign web site, which features a checklist of skilled providers he provides.
If elected, he plans to concentrate on rising the town’s economic system and job choices, bettering public security and increasing household, youth and senior providers. He additionally guarantees to again legislation enforcement, preserve taxes honest and property values robust.
By the tip of the final marketing campaign finance reporting interval, Hinds had raised $1,500. All however one donor was from South Florida.
District 1 covers an space of Pembroke Pines east of Flamingo Highway and south of Hollywood Boulevard, whereas District 4 spans a metropolis space west of Flamingo Highway and south of Pines Boulevard.
Lauderhill
In Lauderhill, voters will weigh in on a referendum in regards to the proposed RISE Lauderhill common obligation bond to speculate $65 million in native tasks.
The town poll consists of three questions, the approval of which might OK bond points funded by limitless property taxes. They embody:
— Query 1, which might authorize as much as $9.5 million in bonds for public security tasks.
— Query 2, which might authorize as much as $34 million in bonds for city-wide park enhancements and services hardening.
— Query 3, which might authorize as much as $21.5 million in bonds for transportation and roadway tasks.
Particulars in regards to the tasks will be seen right here.
Voters in Lauderhill will return to the polls once more in November to decide on a Mayor and resolve who will maintain Seat 4 on the Metropolis Fee. As of this week, just one candidate — Ishmel Brown — has filed to run for the Mayor’s publish now held by Denise Grant.
For Seat 4, Vice Mayor Richard Campbell faces a problem from Tiffany Jackson.
Odds and ends
Florida Politics contacted the Clerk’s Places of work of the 4 different municipalities whose elections have been canceled attributable to a scarcity of competitors. Only one offered names of the default winners by press time.
In Hillsboro Seaside, solely two candidates filed to run for 2 open seats: Mayor Daybreak Miller and Commissioner Jane Reiser.
The city didn’t have an election final 12 months both.
