Weston activist Molina-Macfie the best candidate in commission race
Both candidates for Seat 4 on the Weston City Commission have worked hard for years to make the city a better place to live.
Mary Molina-Macfie got involved in politics 20 years ago when she discovered the public schools in the city were infested with mold that was making her daughter, other students and school employees sick.
Nancy Cooke is president of Weston Republicans, an organization that urges its members to work to register conservative voters. “Let’s Turn Weston Red Together,” the organization’s website says.
Cooke, 70, said the organization has grown to about 500 members under her leadership. She also has been a member of her homeowners’ association in the Bonaventure neighborhood for 18 years, according to her Sun Sentinel endorsement questionnaire.
Both candidates appear to understand the issues facing Weston, but voters in the Seat 4 District would best be served by Molina-Macfie.
Molina-Macfie, 53, began building her political bona fides soon after she moved to Weston from New York in 1992. Her oldest daughter got sick soon after she began attending school. The problems persisted for years until Molina-Macfie discovered that many other students and school employees were getting ill, too.
She eventually got the school system to acknowledge that many district schools had serious mold contamination, she said in her questionnaire and during an endorsement interview at the newspaper.
“While mold still exists, much has been eradicated,” she said.
She said she also worked with the city to reduce the maximum time a registered sex offender can stay as a guest at a home. Before her intervention, she said, predators were staying at homes for long periods. Now they must leave after three days.
She also worked to ease some of Weston’s famously restrictive ordinances governing how and where to plant trees. She said the changes allow “communities to save thousands and in some cases, tens of thousands of dollars.”
She said she established “Veterans of Weston.” She said her father was a Navy SEAL and that she was compelled to organize the group when she learned about the challenges some military veterans face and the lack of resources for them.
The campaign, however, isn’t only about qualifications and community service. Cooke contends that Molina-Macfie doesn’t have her primary residence in Weston and therefore is ineligible to seek the seat.
Molina-Macfie and her husband run a property maintenance business out of a house in Southwest Ranches. She and her husband lived there for a time, but now are separated. Molina-Macfie says her primary residence is a condo in Bonaventure that she partly owns with a friend.
Cooke said that because the majority owner of the apartment used money from his IRA to buy it, federal tax rules prohibit Molina-Macfie from living there. Cooke said she is seeking a definitive legal ruling on the issue.
Molina-Macfie said her living arrangement is perfectly legal and that Cooke “seems to be obsessed with my lifestyle and my residency.” She complained during the newspaper interview that Cooke has had people taking photos of where she goes and stays. She said she feels like she’s being stalked.
Cooke also contends that Molina-Macfie is benefitting from the homestead exemption at the Southwest Ranches home. She also suspects Molina-Macfie’s company is a vendor for the city.
“Her being on the city commission could be perceived as influencing revenue for herself through her family business,” Cooke wrote in her questionnaire.
Both women said they love living in Weston and that the city has “small town charm,” great schools and strong finances.
Cooke said her primary worry about Weston is “overdevelopment.” She said the city now has too much traffic, crowded schools and threatened infrastructure.
Molina-Macfie said the city is wellrun, but is facing challenges. Longtime City Manager John Flint may be retiring and the city needs to find a dynamic administrator to replace him. She also is concerned that the city will be losing veteran commissioners because of term limits.
The city is facing budget challenges and may have to raise taxes to pay for more police and fire protection. She described herself as a “hawk on city spending,” but said she recognizes the city needs to raise more revenue.
Finally, Molina-Macfie pointed out that she is half Puerto Rican and that 40 percent of Weston’s population is now Hispanic. If elected, she said, she would be Weston’s only Hispanic commissioner.