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The municipal elections are coming in just over two weeks and the city of Boca Raton is in our Election Spotlight.
There are two City Council races, including the one for Seat D. That's where Monica Mayotte is termed out and two people want her seat.
Brian Stenberg ran for this seat unsuccessfully in 2021. He serves on the Palm Beach County Planning Commission and was formerly on the Boca Raton Housing Authority.
He runs a property management company and talks about ways that city government can help keep taxes low. Stenberg stresses looking closely at how the city is spending money, bringing up a ballot referendum from last March, asking voters to extend councilmembers terms from 3 years to four.
"I spent some of my own money and I raised some money to launch a campaign to basically shut the referendum down, because we could do it at another time when there was actually an election going on when you could combine everything into one"
There was nothing else on the ballot and it was unsuccessful. Stenberg says that cost the city over $100,000.
Former councilmember Andy Thomson was elected in a special election to a partial term in 2018 and was reelected to a full term in 2020. After sitting out last year, he wants to fill Seat D.
The attorney says there is a lot of turnover in the city's executive leadership positions, along with two new council members who were just elected last year.
"So you have brand new faces on the dais. You have brand new faces at the City Manager, Deputy City Manager and soon to be Finance Director's spot. We need people with experience. We need people who have a knowledge of what the job requires and knows how to do it, and that's me."
Both candidates talk about affordable housing and how the Brightline station has helped the city of Boca Raton and its residents.