BROOK DEFEATS STRADLING

55% Vote against Mayor Sommerer

Pathetic Voter Turnout as a Result of No Effort by City

With a pathetic 6.76% of the voting population turning out  at the municipal election Coral Springs, a message was sent to the City Commissioners: You have lulled us to sleep! Only 4,557 out of 67,440 voters decided the outcome of the city election for 3 positions.Scott Brook defeated incumbent  Bill Stradling.  Bill was one of the 5 commissioners that voted to ignore the term limit law of 8 years. Scott Brook will add some new energy to a stagnant partisan city commission,  only if he isn’t a sheep that follows the pack. From the way he was campaigning , Scott promised to change a few things around here. Scott will be the lone ranger and probably will be shutout from major decisions from the other 4. The staff, who is controlled by City Manager Mike Levenson will probably make sure not to give Scott the support that the other 4 have been getting. Scott will have to assert himself early on, and show the other 4 that he is one to be contended with.

The other important election involved the position of Mayor. The incumbent  John Sommerer won the position with only 44% of the vote. Pasin and Boccard split the balance.  That allowed the John Sommerer to win with less than a majority of voters.  More than 55% of the population voting against the mayor. Perhaps this was a lesson to be learned/.

Coral Springs the ‘premier place to live work and raise a family’, maybe the premier place not to have John Sommerer as Mayor. Perhaps the message from a pathetic turnout of voters is that the incumbent lame duck mayor who changed the rules to allow him to run again, couldn’t convince a majority of even the most dedicated voters that he was worthy of the position.   Vincent Boccard who came in second place, had 1200 votes was only a Pasin away from winning this election. Boccard was the unknown untested candidate with no city history. Yet he was able to get 800 votes less than the mayor! To put it into perspective, Even the Student Council President at Taravella High School got more votes in their election than the mayor did in this one.

Rhonda Calhoun easily defeated Phil Rodin in this election. She will probably not finish her term as it is rumored that she will be running for a state legislature position.  Rhonda is perhaps the only sanest person on the commission always adding her honest personal feelings to an otherwise impersonal discussion. Recently she was offended by having to vote on something that was being rammed through the city commission by the city manager (Charter School Management Agreement). Maybe, she will team up with Scott Brook and not be further intimidated by BS and P (Berke Sommerer, and Polin). Maybe then the other 63,000 residents will come out and vote.

Finally, everyone should thank the city staff for the low turnout which as a result of their lack of effort helped unseat the incumbent and giving us the first Coral Springs secret election. No hanging chads to worry about, in fact barely any chads at all!

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Author: HelpMeHoward