Will new board stop The Wave?
Newly elected City Commission pledged to cancel streetcar project after election
The first campaign promise for the newly elected City Commission will be tested Tuesday, after all three candidates signed pledges that they’d vote “to cancel The Wave” streetcar project on the very day they’re sworn in.
Voters on March 13 gave victories to Mayor Dean Trantalis and commissioners Steve Glassman and Ben Sorensen. The trio rode into office on a surge of sentiment against perceived overdevelopment, poorly maintained watersewer infrastructure, and opposition to The Wave loop downtown.
If voters expect a definitive killing of The Wave on Tuesday, though, they might be disappointed. Mayor-elect Dean Trantalis said a simple vote to renege on the city’s promise to help pay for the rail system might not be the best way forward. Glassman cautioned that it might take time to deliver on that and some of the city’s other complicated problems.
“You’re not going to be able to undo nine years in the first meeting,” Glassman said, referencing the tenure of Mayor Jack Seiler and his colleagues Romney Rogers and Bruce Roberts, who leave office on Tuesday.
The three in early February signed this pledge, at the urging of
the civic group F.L.A.W. (Fort Lauderdale Against the Wave):
“Based upon the responsibilities of elected public officials to protect the public interests and act in fiscally responsible manner, and based upon the delegation of the Broward County Commission to the City of Fort Lauderdale to make the “go/ no-go” final decision on The Wave, if elected, I commit to voting to cancel The Wave at the first meeting of the newly elected Commission.”
The Wave isn’t on the agenda Tuesday, City Manager Lee Feldman said, but the new politicians could bring it up.
Objections to the project include its overhead electrical lines, embedded rails, route that doesn’t go to the airport or port, a higherthan-expected price tag, and presence in traffic lanes with automobiles.
Even knowing that a majority of incoming commissioners opposed The Wave, and going against the city attorney’s advice, current Commissioners Romney Rogers and Robert McKinzie and Mayor Seiler recommitted the city financially in a February vote.
Trantalis said he’ll meet over the weekend with The Wave’s most vocal opponents, including those who drew up the pledge he and other candidates signed. He said he also is lining up meetings with federal officials to see if Fort Lauderdale could keep the federal Wave grant but use it toward a drastically altered project.
“A lot of things are said during campaigns,” Mayorelect Trantalis said. “The ask out in the community was made loud and clear, but now that the election is over, we can take a sober moment and reflect on the best approach.”
Commissioners and the mayor will be sworn in at 11 a.m. at Parker Playhouse at 707 NE Eighth St. At 1:30 p.m., they’ll convene for their first conference meeting in City Hall. Feldman said a majority of the fivemember board could ask that a decision on The Wave be added to the 6 p.m. meeting, where a vote could take place.
Glassman said he’ll meet with the city manager and city attorney before Tuesday, to determine the best course. Sorensen said he expects a healthy debate about The Wave at Tuesday’s meeting and is committed to nixing it in its current form.
“I am not convinced that we can salvage this project,” he said. “I think we’ve got to look at alternatives.”
The trio will be joined at the swearing-in by Heather Moraitis, who won a seat without opposition, and by reelected Commissioner McKinzie. Both support The Wave.
Opposition in the community took a new form just before the March 13 election. The civic group Lauderdale Tomorrow, led by the city’s Citizen of the Year, Mary Fertig, began collecting signatures to revoke the special tax assessment that property owners along the route are paying for the system.
“One goal of our petition initiative is to show how much opposition there is against The Wave,” Fertig emailed the group’s members. “Also, it provides a way for citizens who will be the ones actually paying for the system to voice their opposition to paying for a project which many citizens no longer support.”
Change might not stop there:
City administration:
Trantalis says the city manager and City Attorney Cynthia Everett should be replaced; Glassman and Sorensen said they’ll consider it, too. “The community, the citizenry have spoken,” Trantalis said, “and they want to see new leadership.” Glassman said he wants to have “a conversation” with the manager and attorney before deciding whether to oust one or both. Sorensen said a common topic at voter forums in southern Fort Lauderdale was the performance of the city manager, and he favors evaluating the charter officers “sooner rather than later.”
Bahia Mar: Trantalis, Glassman and Sorensen oppose the recently approved development plan for the city-owned Bahia Mar property at the beach. All three said they’d support changes. Seiler, Rogers, McKinzie and Bruce Roberts in the current commission in December approved a development plan with eight high-rises, seven of them rental apartments, plus six shorter buildings. “Residents want to see far fewer units,” Sorensen said, “and they want to see a primary focus as a resort marina.”
The election of the three comes after years of freewheeling growth.
Trantalis won with nearly 65 percent of the vote — a larger victory than his predecessors enjoyed when they first ran.
“Everyone is telling me you certainly have a mandate,” Trantalis said. “You will see appreciable change on homelessness, you’ll see appreciable change on rising sea level issues, you’ll see appreciable change on the other infrastructure challenges, on development, on the regulation of traffic. That’s the type of change people are looking for.”