One week after election, commission still in limbo
Challenges, vote count slowing down swearing-in of winning candidates
FORT LAUDERDALE — Call it news of the weird.
Fort Lauderdale might have chosen three new commissioners on Election Day last week, but they weren’t sworn in to office Tuesday as originally planned.
Here’s why: Winner John Herbst’s qualifications are being challenged by two losing candidates; winner Warren Sturman won by just 49 votes and the results won’t be certified until Sunday; and winner Pamela Beasley-Pittman doesn’t want to be sworn in until the official results are in.
That means Fort Lauderdale only has two people left on the commission: Mayor Dean Trantalis and Commissioner Steve Glassman.
Tuesday night’s commission meeting was canceled because they do not have a quorum.
Fort Lauderdale held its regular 1:30 p.m. commission conference meeting on Tuesday with only Trantalis and Glassman on the dais, flanked by three empty seats. Herbst and Sturman watched from the audience along with a few dozen residents.
The winners in Districts 3 and 4 can be sworn in to office next week after the election is certified, City Attorney Alain Boileau said. At that point, the commission could hold a hearing regarding Herbst’s election to let each side plead its case.
It was unclear Tuesday when that hearing might be held, but the mayor suggesting calling a special meeting next week before the Thanksgiving holiday.
Three crowded races
Fort Lauderdale held a special election on Nov. 8 to fill the seats of Ben Sorensen, Robert McKinzie and Heather Moraitis that drew 15 candidates. All three commissioners made an exit in the middle of their four-year terms, leaving office on Nov. 7.
Herbst clobbered his District 1 opponents on Election Day, winning nearly 40% of the votes in a race where many considered him the underdog.
He would have been sworn in Tuesday if not for two rivals claiming he should be disqualified.
Ken Keechl, who trailed Herbst by 2,850 votes, and Chris Williams, who came in last, filed a complaint with City Hall on Monday afternoon saying Herbst was not eligible to take office because he moved into his Fort Lauderdale apartment in District 1 less than six months before Election Day.
The complaint arrived less than 24 hours before Tuesday’s planned 11 a.m. swearing-in ceremony at City Hall.
On Monday night, Boileau advised City Hall to cancel the ceremony.
In an email sent to the mayor and Glassman at 10:56 p.m. Monday, Boileau pointed to the complaint challenging Herbst’s qualifications. He also cited the close race in District 4, with Sturman winning by just 49 votes. The Broward Supervisor of Elections has not yet certified the election results and won’t be able to do so until later this week when all over
seas ballots can be counted, Boileau noted.
Boileau recommended Beasley-Pittman be sworn in Tuesday afternoon because she is the “clear and uncontested winner” of the District 3 race. But she told city officials she preferred to wait on official results.
“I’m a little disappointed but the main event was having the family come into town and we all got to spend time together,” Sturman told the Sun Sentinel. “But we have to respect the system. And at the end of the day, I look forward to serving the community.”
Boileau told the commission there were 140 overseas ballots that could change the outcome of the District 4 election.
Seven weeks ago, 318 overseas ballots were sent to District 4 voters, Ivan Castro, spokesman with Broward Supervisor of Elections Office, told the Sun Sentinel.
“We’ve gotten 134 back (42%) and there are 140 overseas ballots still out there,” Castro said. “If we assume turnout matches the rest of the county, we can expect about 19 more ballots to come back. There shouldn’t be any expectation that all 140 come back.”
Will of the people
Herbst declined to comment Tuesday because the city had not yet provided him with a copy of the complaint.
But he posted this Tweet: “The only thing more outrageous than refusing to seat me is the suggestion that they are going to appoint their own puppet candidates so that they have the votes to overturn the will of the voters. This is an attempt to disenfranchise the 6,620 residents that voted for me!”
Barbra Stern, his attorney, said Herbst established residency in Fort Lauderdale’s District 1 on April 14 and has satisfied all other requirements for holding office.
She blasted Keechl and Williams, saying they were trying to subvert the will of the people.
In order to be eligible to hold office, Herbst should have established residency in Fort Lauderdale by May 12, according to the complaint. But he did not establish residency until May 31, Keechl and Williams claim.
In the days leading up to last week’s election, Herbst told the Sun Sentinel he had moved into District 1 in April.
Herbst bought a townhouse in Lake Placid last year and has a homestead exemption on the property. He said he plans to buy a home in Fort Lauderdale within the year, as the market cools.
Herbst is a newcomer to public office. For 16 years, he served as Fort Lauderdale’s city auditor, rooting out fraud and corruption.
Frosty relations?
That all changed in February when he was fired from his $272,625-a-year job during a late-night commission meeting after three of his commission bosses said they had lost confidence in him.
Trantalis accused him of overstepping his authority by opening a “secret” investigation into the former police chief and his moonlighting job as a college basketball referee. Glassman and Sorensen said they also wanted him gone.
Herbst says he was wrongly dismissed and, under the city charter, had every right to investigate claims of fraud without permission from the commission.
Some have wondered how frosty things might get with Herbst on the commission, serving with the very people who fired him.
The night of the election, Herbst told the Sun Sentinel he didn’t anticipate too much drama on the dais.
“I think we’re going to work just fine together,” he said. “I think we’re all professionals and we all want what’s best for the city.”
Fort Lauderdale was forced to hold a special election on Nov. 8 after three commissioners stepped down in the middle of their terms.
Sorensen, the District 4 commissioner, resigned to run for Congress but lost to Jared Moskowitz.
McKinzie, the District 3 commissioner, resigned to run for the county commission and won.
Moraitis, the District 1 commissioner, surprised City Hall when she announced in April that she planned to step down in November with two years left in her term.
Soon after, Herbst decided he’d run for her commission seat.
He had three opponents: Keechl, an attorney and former county commissioner; Williams, a real estate agent; and Christina Disbrow, a small business owner and former legislative aide.
Here’s the breakdown on the votes in that race: Herbst got 6,620 votes (39.67%); Keechl followed with 3,770 votes (22.59%); Disbrow came in third with 3,184 votes (19.08%); and Williams got 3,114 votes (18.66%).