Pompano Beach voters will choose a new mayor, and four commission districts are up for election on Nov. 5.
Like many other cities in Florida, Pompano Beach faces challenges ahead, aiming to address the affordable housing crisis, as well as a new state law that bans the homeless from sleeping in public spaces. Some City Commission candidates also are divided about what belongs and what fits throughout the city.
That includes a surge of new residential high-rises, reaching possibly as high as 21 and 24 stories, which are poised to grow Pompano Beach’s beachside skyline.
There also is a growing downtown, which also is expected to welcome more homes, more businesses and a new City Hall.
Mayor’s race
Incumbent Mayor Rex Hardin is being challenged by Debresia LeSane, a barber and barber instructor, and owner of a hair product company. She is a Pompano Beach native and has not served elected office.
She said more jobs need to be created to bring college graduates back to their hometown “so they can be first-time homebuyers,” she said.
She wants the city to focus on affordable housing and force dilapidated projects to be condemned or renovated: “We’re coming back to live with our grandparents and moms.”
LeSane said she wants to be a fresh set of eyes to City Hall for “obvious change that needs to happen.”
“How many liquor stores do we have? There needs to be a cap. A lot of things are being overlooked.”
She is also running to see more financial accountability: “It’s crash-and-burn budgets that don’t make sense at all.”
Broward court records show LeSane has dealt with law enforcement in the past.
In April 2014, a Broward sheriff’s deputy detained her on the charge of cannabis possession of 20 grams or less, to which she pleaded no contest with adjudication withheld, meaning there would be no conviction, the court records show. “It was a charge, not a conviction,” she told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
According to the sheriff’s report, the deputy pulled her over in the Fort Lauderdale area, near Commercial Boulevard and Northwest 31st Avenue, and found a “partially smoked cannabis cigarette” in the vehicle. The report said LeSane told the deputy the cigarette was “being smoked” during “the filming of a music video.”
She recently told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that she didn’t say that. She said the cannabis, not hers, was found in a relative’s car, in the car’s trunk.
During the same stop, the deputy determined her license was suspended, writing in the report that state records for her at the time showed “8 suspensions and a revocation.” She was adjudicated guilty of the charge of driving with her license suspended or revoked, the records show.
LeSane said it was that unfair experience that contributed to her decision to run for office and help create a better community.
The incumbent
Hardin was first elected as City Commissioner in 1998. He was defeated in 2000 but came back to win in 2007, and has served ever since. He was first elected mayor in 2018.
He said he is concentrating on affordable housing and mitigating the effects of sea-level rise. The city has hired a “sustainability coordinator,” he said, “to ensure we keep working toward our adopted goals and help identify areas where we can increase our mitigation efforts.”
Also among his priorities: improving the quality of life in the western end while being mindful of the residents who live there.
“The development and growth we have seen on the east side, it is about to start taking place on the west side,” he said. “For too long … there’s been an east-west divide. It’s time, it’s past time, that we started doing more in the western section of our city to improve the quality of life, improve the infrastructure and increase economic development. That’s really what’s happening, finally.”
“We’re not going to have a second shot at it,” he said of the plans to redevelop the northwest.
“We’re changing into a more modern city, a lot of redevelopment is taking place but we still have the small-time atmosphere,” he said. “We have families who have been here for generations, that’s not something we want to lose. That’s why we’re being careful with the growth.”
He said he’s the best pick: “The residents of our city want elected officials who can get things done, not just fight about things.”
In 2020, Hardin acknowledged violating Florida’s campaign finance laws, the second time in two years. Hardin admitted that during his November 2018 election campaign he accepted contributions in excess of the legal limit, among other issues, and paid a civil penalty of $2,250.
Hardin told the Sun Sentinel that his attorney had suggested he settle even though he had evidence to show he had not accepted contributions over the limit.
The first time the elections commission fined Hardin was following a 2016 investigation into his campaign finance practices in his 2014 commissioner reelection campaign. In that case, he acknowledged that he wrongly certified to the correctness of his termination report, failed to include information about expenditures, and made or authorized prohibited expenditures. He paid a $1,300 fine.
Hardin said the issue was an accounting error by transferring money too soon, and there was no missing money. After that, he used a treasurer to review records for “another set of eyes outside the campaign.”
According to the elections office website, as of June 30, Hardin had raised about $47,000, compared with LeSane’s $1,200.
District 1
Vice Mayor Andrea McGee, who represents the beachside area of District 1, said she was blindsided when she found out she was being challenged by Audrey Fesik, who is also a first cousin.
McGee has been a six-year commissioner and said she “loves the direction Pompano is going.” She said each project must become a “balance of what we’re trying to do in Pompano without losing our personality.” Lowering taxes, maximizing transportation opportunities and attracting economic opportunity are among her priorities.
She said the city cannot stop developers from building on their own land, but the city has been proactive in requesting changes to “make sure development is not controlling us.”
McGee said she responds as quick as possible to all residents’ queries and concerns, and she seeks staff help when necessary, and has “countless” emails thanking her for her accessibility. She said she is looking forward to continuing to serve and “do great work.”
Fesik said it is time for change. “She’s had her moment,” Fesik said about her cousin.
Despite their family ties, Fesik has come out swinging, saying, “I don’t think she can look (developers) in the eye and say no. … If she’s going to say no to a developer I have yet to see it.” She said overdevelopment and zoning are among her top issues, and she’s in favor of “press pause” on new projects.
“The city as a whole needs to take a break,” she said.
Scores of projects are in the pipeline for the beach, including condo-hotels, and luxury homes with slips for their private boats.
“The developers seem to be taking over the city,” she said. “They do have rights, however the residents also have rights.”
Fesik said “the residents asked me” to run for office after she had “increasing frustration with how things were being done in the city and how things were being decided in the city.”
But Fesik said residents “don’t feel like they are being heard.”
Fesik said McGee has higher political aspirations than Pompano Beach, but McGee said she has no immediate plans to seek another position, and any higher office that could happen in the future would concentrate on benefiting Pompano Beach.
According to the elections office website, as of June 30, McGee had raised about $12,000, compared with Fesik’s $1,600.
District 3
The District 3 candidates are incumbent Alison Fournier and Thomas McMahon. The district represents much of the southern part of the city, mostly older, single-family homes. That includes Garden Isles, Cypress Harbor and Lyons Park and Old Pompano.
The race is a rematch: Two-term Commissioner McMahon was successfully challenged by Fournier in 2022.
McMahon said Lyons Park was under major construction at the time, and roadwork then planned for Atlantic Boulevard and Dixie Highway to remove a lane, and those issues hurt him in the last election.
McMahon said while they both have passion, “I grew up here and I know what residents want.” He said he rallied residents to successfully protest defunding Sand and Spurs Equestrian Park. (Fournier said it was expensive and benefited few people, but after community outcry, the city made improvements to the park.)
“I’m honest and have integrity,” McMahon said. He said it’s misleading residents to tell them the commission can stop development when they have legal property rights.
A Pompano Beach native, McMahon said his cellphone was on his business card when he served in office, and believes in being accessible, creating unity on the City Commission and “keeping the character of our city alive, preserving the history of our city.”
But Fournier said she knocked “on every door” in the district and said they felt “unheard and neglected.”
Fournier said she is focused on investment being made to roads and bridges: “With all this development and growth we must be really focused on the infrastructure and keeping pace. We now have these one-in-a-100-year rainstorms every year, we’ve seen the consequences in cities not as prepared as we are.”
Fournier said she advocates for what residents need and yes or no “on whether a project makes sense or not.”
“I am laser-focused on affordability for longtime residents,” she said. “I fought for lower taxes and, this year, we put forth the first reduction in our city’s tax rate in eight years. I will continue to fight to lower our tax rate. I always look for opportunities to make life more affordable, like advocating for a higher resident parking discount and pushing financial discipline to keep the cost of city services low.”
Fournier, the owner of various properties in the city, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel she suspects some political adversaries have summoned city code enforcers onto her property. In addition to her own home, Fournier owns and rents nine houses, with one of them on Northeast 29th Street facing code violations last November.
The code violations at that house included overgrown grass, missing grass, the roof’s condition, tires stored on the property, city records show. Those issues were resolved in August.
Fournier said she tended to the complaint immediately, and thought the tenants would resolve the issues, but it took longer than expected and she hired outside services to expedite the resolution.
“I feel strongly these are homes in residential neighborhoods and they need to be kept and maintained inside and out, and I do everything possible to do that,” she said. “I have tenants that have been in the property for 12-13 years. These are their homes.”
“I have worked closely with the city for years to improve the property,” she said. “There has never been a single time where I ignored a notice or waited until the last minute. I have always immediately reached out to see what needed to be done.”
According to the elections office website, as of June 30, Fournier had raised about $24,000, compared with McMahon $10,000.
District 4
The three-way western race for the city’s northwest district is between John Jones, incumbent Beverly Perkins and Edward Phillips, who served as a city commissioner years ago.
Perkins, a city commissioner since 2016, supports abolishing the contract with the Broward Sheriff’s Office in favor of a city police force. Until that were to happen, she said she wants the Sheriff’s Office to concentrate on community-based policing. “We can cut down on crime,” she said.
“If people in the community know the police officer, they’ll feel more comfortable talking and communicating with the officer,” she said.
Jones said, “I agree we should move on from BSO.”
Phillips, a commissioner from 2001-2003 and 2014-2016, differs from the other candidates: He wants to keep the Sheriff’s Office. He said before the Sheriff’s Office took over law enforcement for the city, there was a “perception of discrimination and a lot of adverse things that happened around the issues of African Americans and policing.”
He said with the Sheriff’s Office, the hope was the “ability to have more African Americans aspire and go forward in being captains, chiefs, officers, which has actually happened while BSO has been on the watch.”
All candidates also have voiced concerns about gentrification, which could happen when redevelopment that causes an uptick in prices will drive out families who have lived there for generations.
The northwest community is home to generations, dating to when Pompano was known for its farmland and when Black immigrants from the Bahamas worked the fields picking beans.
Phillips said there is a “legitimate fear factor” from residents who worry about being outpriced.
Jones said attention is being paid to the beach and while “the city commissioners state, ‘We want to improve the northwest area because of the blight and despair,’ however if their motives were genuine, we would have grocery stores, affordable housing and/or jobs in the new plans.”
Perkins said her greatest issue is affordable housing, hearing from residents, “We need housing, we can’t afford this.”
She also wants “more community-oriented programs and targeted community outreach to assist in retaining our streets.” Other concerns: “The community is also in dire need of more strategies to improve the community appearance (like) trash, landscaping and neighborhood threats.”
Jones said when people ask why he is running, his response is: “Why are you not running? You can’t see the crime that is going on? You can’t see the problems that we have?”
He said he wants more programs for young people, including mental health support services for counseling and support groups.
Phillips said among his top priorities is creating new affordable housing, which is “vital for future generations. Mixed-use developments that include a percentage of affordable units should be incentivized by city, county, and state governments through grants, technical assistance, and expedited permitting processes. These efforts will help boost the availability of affordable housing in Pompano Beach.”
According to the elections office website, as of June 30, Perkins had raised the most money for her campaign with $2,000, compared with about $600 each from her two challengers.
District 5
City Commissioner Barry Moss is not seeking reelection in his southwestern district, which includes Palm-Aire, leaving the seat open for four people seeking to fill his spot: Grant Archer, Cyndy Floyd, Sajan Kurian and Darlene Smith.
Floyd, a Pompano native, is a former city commissioner who served for two years 2020-2022.
“I will absolutely, positively vote with my residents,” she said, and her issues include efforts to help homeless, who are visible in the city. “Something has really got to be done,” she said. Incentivizing landlords to accept housing vouchers could be an option, she said.
Kurian agrees that homeless issues seem to be an increasing problem with “overflow is coming into Pompano. (There’s) not effective leadership that can tackle the issue so far.”
Kurian said he would like to see free CPR classes for youth and adults, homeowners receive subsidized paint to touch up their homes, discounted or free public transportation, and discounted beach parking fees for Pompano Beach residents on weekends and holidays.
Smith served on the Pompano Beach Planning and Zoning Board for the past 10 years, and president of Palm Aire Condo Association 4 for the last 11 years. She said her community service includes coordinating a seven-year transformation of two former golf courses in Palm Aire into lakes.
While Smith said the city is properly managing its growth, Floyd said, “everywhere you look there’s a building going up.”
Archer, age 30, said the city needs “young energy.” As a Pompano Beach resident for more than a year, he attends commission meetings but is not yet involved with any boards.
He said his main goal is to improve public safety to concentrate on reducing crime.
“You can’t just throw more cops on the street,” he said.
To tackle the problem, he points out that some public schools “preach college,” he said, but he wants more options presented to the city’s high school seniors such as trade apprenticeships.
“That would put them on the correct path,” he said, to avoid crime and be more financially successful than someone with a bachelor’s degree.
“I think things are moving in a positive direction, I like the development that is going on,” he said, and he wants “to maintain that path.”
According to the elections office website, as of June 30, Smith had raised about $17,000, compared with $1,000 for Archer, $2,600 from Floyd and $3,800 raised by Kurian.
District 2
Only Rhonda Eaton in District 2 was unopposed for her commission seat.
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on X, formerly Twitter, @LisaHuriash