What’s next for Fort Lauderdale: Four election winners discuss biggest steps ahead
Fort Lauderdale's sometimes nasty election cycle saw political rivals attacking incumbents, railing against overdevelopment, broken sewer pipes and nightmarish gridlock.
They promised change. But on Tuesday, three out of the four incumbents declared victory.
Dean Trantalis , an attorney elected mayor of Fort Lauderdale six years ago, won a third and final term.
Incumbents John Herbst and Steve Glassman won their commission races for the District 1 and 2 seats. And Ben Sorensen , a former commissioner who stepped down in 2022 to run for Congress, easily knocked out incumbent Warren Sturman for the District 4 seat.
What now? The South Florida Sun Sentinel checked in with the winners to see what's next as they chart the course for the city's future.
Mayor Dean Trantalis
What lies ahead for Fort Lauderdale now that the election has been decided?
The new commission will take office the first meeting in December.
In January, we will come up with our priorities during our annual goal-setting meeting with an open discussion on what voices people heard during the campaign.
Can you name some of the city's upcoming priorities?
Planning a new City Hall is going to be important.
(Fort Lauderdale's City Hall building, badly damaged during a record rainstorm in April 2023, was recently demolished.)
I expect in the next few months we will be making a decision on the new City Hall.
It's a big site. Maybe the new City Hall should be built there (in the same downtown location).
Continuing with our infrastructure program is going to be important (to address flooding and the city's underground pipes).
We also want to focus more on cleaning up our waterways.
And what measures we're going to take in order to address our homeless situation.
Those will become topics I would like to address.
We're going to talk about commuter rail.
Commissioner-Elect Ben Sorensen was a strong proponent for a tunnel to cross the New River as opposed to a bridge. I feel we have a solid majority for the tunnel option. I hope to continue to work with the county on that.
Another project I've been working on is trying to bring a retail center downtown to complement Las Olas Boulevard. This would bring in national brands and high-end retail. It would involve repurposing the city's two downtown parking garages and using that real estate to partner with private investors to keep the parking and build one or more towers on that site for retail shops.
What will happen to the black olive trees planted on the median on Las Olas? Will they stay or go?
It's not an either/or choice. We can still incorporate planting the trees along the sidewalks and widen the sidewalks. And by the time they mature, the trees in the median will be ready to come down — if they have not already died. We should be prepared when they all die in 10 years to already have new trees planted on the sides of the street.
Vice Mayor Steve Glassman
What lies ahead for Fort Lauderdale?
We will continue to tackle our challenges and move forward as a city.
We need to address infrastructure and flooding and traffic. Those priorities will not change. Those priorities are not going away. We just have to keep going and keep making progress.
We've always had homelessness and housing affordability as a priority.
During the campaign, I did hear a lot about the homeless crisis. That is on people's minds. They want us to address it.
One person told me they didn't vote for me because they thought I was too aggressive on that. But we don't want this to be an issue that takes over the whole city. We have to make sure the neighbors' quality of life is not impacted.
We need a new City Hall. We have to move forward with that discussion.
How might things have been different if one of your two opponents won?
I would just say that each of us brings our very special talents to the issues. When you have a change on the dais, there's always going to be a change in approach.
Will the trees on Las Olas stay or go?
We have not decided that yet. We have asked for options on that.
Commissioner John Herbst
What lies ahead for Fort Lauderdale?
We'll have our planning session in January. We need to address the state's new homeless law. That's going to be the big thing on our plate.
As far as longer-term projects, we need a new City Hall.
We have to come to some resolution about the (cracks) in the roof of the police station and how we are going to handle that. If the experts think it's fixable, the engineers who designed the project will pay for (the fix).
We also have to hire a new city manager and a new city attorney.
(Greg Chavarria, the former city manager, resigned in May. Tom Ansbro, the former city attorney, died in October.)
Will the tree-lined median stay or go?
We still haven't come to a final decision on what we're doing. That will be another one of those things that's in the works. It's time to get that one across the finish line.
Commissioner-Elect Ben Sorensen
Commissioner-Elect Ben Sorensen will represent the District 4 neighborhoods after being sworn in on Dec. 3.
What lies ahead for Fort Lauderdale? What goals and projects do you have in mind?
My main focus is going to be our infrastructure. Stormwater, drainage, water and sewer is job one. We are ground zero for sea-level rise and weather impacts in Fort Lauderdale. And we have neighborhoods throughout the city that are dramatically impacted by rain and flooding events. We need to increase the bond funding and the pace at which we upgrade our infrastructure so that we meet the needs of all neighborhoods.
Number two is homelessness.
(The homeless population of the city has increased over the last year.) We need to do everything we can in a hands-on approach to identify homeless individuals and create immediate action plans for their rehousing and wrap-around case management support.
We need to act with immediacy, urgency and efficiency to house and get the appropriate services for homeless individuals.
There's three options for housing homeless individuals. One is a shelter. Two is an existing apartment. And third is building more affordable workforce housing.
The national best practice indicates that putting homeless people into shelters is not the best option. So we have to redouble our efforts to partner with existing landlords to get homeless people into existing units. And we have to with greater urgency identify city-owned land and possibly privately owned land to build more workforce housing.
Are the trees on Las Olas staying or going?
My understanding is the city is preparing an updated design of Las Olas that will include trees in the median. I look forward to seeing that design. And I look forward to having a robust discussion with the neighborhoods to identify the best path going forward.
