Who will become next mayor in Fort Lauderdale?

Two city commissioners are competing to be called mayor in Fort Lauderdale in the March 13 election.

Bruce Roberts, 70, is the city’s former police chief. Dean Trantalis, 64, is an attorney with an office in Wilton Manors.

The current mayor, Jack Seiler, is leaving office due to term limits.

The city mayor presides over meetings but doesn’t run the city. Fort Lauderdale is run by a professional city manager, Lee Feldman.

A new mayor will be sworn in March 20.

Seiler, in his last state-of-the-city address, said the city’s growth has improved quality of life and brought more jobs.

But voters are complaining about some of the byproducts of heavy development, including more cars on the roads and a strain on the aging watersewer infrastructure.

Trantalis, who has been campaigning on the city’s failure to update its infrastructure, solve traffic problems or curb over-development, carried 46 percent of the vote in the January primary. Roberts, who campaigned on updating a citizen vision for the future, and on “proven leadership” and “veracity,”

won 31 percent. A third candidate, Charlotte Rodstrom, came in third and is no longer in the race.

Roberts is married, has two adult children and lives on Northeast 64th Street in the Imperial Point neighborhood. He raised $142,611 by the latest reporting date, Feb. 16. Trantalis is single and lives on Northeast 18th Avenue in the Poinsettia Heights neighborhood. He raised $113,287 as of the latest report.

Here’s where they stand on major issues:

Development

Roberts said he has “heard loud and clear the concerns of the community” and supports smart growth. “Strategic development/redevelopment fosters a dynamic, vital community which can compete on the world stage economically and socially, and it requires open meetings when residents are heard during normal hours,” he wrote in his Sun Sentinel candidate questionnaire. Roberts voted for the recent Bahia Mar redevelopment on city-owned land at the beach, saying it was supported by marine and business groups and by the organizers of the annual boat show, an economic giant. He helped kill a plan to redevelop the Galleria Mall by wrapping it in residential towers. He is opposed to a temporary building moratorium while the water-sewer system is rebuilt, saying, “we can walk and chew gum at the same time.”

Trantalis said the city needs to be “tough on overdevelopment, while allowing the city to grow smartly in ways that respect our neighborhoods, the character of our community and our quality of life.” He voted against the Bahia Mar redevelopment that he cites as an example of “development run amuck.” He, like Roberts, voted to approve thousands of condos, apartments and towers downtown in recent years. But he said he now regrets voting for a senior living tower on the New River that was opposed by the neighbors.

He said he would consider a building moratorium while the city works to rebuild infrastructure to support development that has been approved.

Infrastructure

Roberts voted in favor of a $200 million bond issue in January to repair and upgrade the sewer system. He issued a stern warning to the city manager last fall, telling Feldman his job was on the line if improvements weren’t made soon. He said past city studies and bond ratings didn’t make clear how serious the city’s infrastructure problems were. Pipes suddenly burst on a large scale starting in 2016.

Roberts said the city has “a plan going forward,” its Go Big, Go Fast program to patch leaky pipes and expand capacity.

Trantalis voted against the bond issue. He said the city doesn’t need the money all at once and should borrow it in smaller amounts over time.

He was critical of the city for continuing to remove money each year from the water-sewer fund to spend on other things, and he said the city should have cut the general budget to offset the loss of money.

“I was the only one to vote no,” Trantalis said of the removal of water-sewer money in the recent budget. “We had to be able to make cuts in other areas. We had to be able to offer less to our employees. We had to be able to find ways to ensure that we have a balanced budget without having to put at risk the health and safety of our community.”

Roberts said he suggested raising the property tax rate so the water-sewer fund could remain intact without leading to cuts in general city services, but his colleagues didn’t agree.

The Wave

Both candidates pledged recently to disentangle the city from its promise of financial support for The Wave streetcar system planned for the downtown. Even with that knowledge, the current City Commission voted recently to reaffirm the city’s financial obligations. Trantalis and Roberts voted no.

Roberts said the city needs a way to connect different modes of transportation, and it will be “an uphill battle” trying to change course now, some 14 years into The Wave’s planning.

The Wave would run with downtown traffic on embedded rails, powered by overhead electrical lines, carrying passengers on a loop that runs north of the New River to south of it.

Roberts said “under its current configuration and format, its uncertain finances and uncertain routing in the future,” he will extricate the city from its financial commitment. Roberts said if he’s elected, the issue likely will come up at the next regular meeting after the March 20 swearingin.

Trantalis said there are alternative modes of mass transportation that would be better than The Wave. He commits to bringing up the issue on March 20, if he wins election. The county plans to re-bid the project, after the original bids came in too high.

“We need to move forward quickly. We cannot hesitate,” Trantalis said.

Guns

After the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, complaints came in anew about a gun show that is regularly held at Fort Lauderdale’s city-owned War Memorial Auditorium.

Trantalis said “it’s a sin that we continue to allow that to happen” and he said he’d push harder to discontinue it. Trantalis said he has protested the shows “year after year” but couldn’t get support from anyone else on the City Commission. “We shouldn’t have to wait for 17 [people] to die to know what to do, the right thing is to do,” he said at a recent campaign forum. He said the city also should push the state to ban assault weapon purchases by civilians.

Roberts said he has also been on record saying the gun show shouldn’t take place near children in a park. The auditorium is in the city’s Holiday Park. He said he supports an assaultweapons ban, and a school resource officer for every school. He also supports airport-level security at schools, he said. “Bear in mind,” he said of gun control laws, “that’s a state legislative responsibility. We as a municipality can only ask our legislators, with your help going forward, like the wonderful students at Stoneman Douglas.”

Administration

Both candidates said at a recent campaign forum that they’d pursue changes in top city staff.

Roberts praised the city manager, saying he brought professionalism and competence to the city administration but can be “tone deaf in listening to people.” He said he’s not pleased with the performance of City Attorney Cynthia Everett. And he said the transportation and mobility department needs a “shakeup” so the city can improve how it handles traffic problems.

Trantalis said the city needs “a clean sweep,” including replacement of the city manager, city attorney and “those department heads that have failed us these past several years.” “It’s time to move on with fresh ideas, fresh vision,” he said.

Contributions

Roberts said he accepted money from lobbyists and developers, but he said his campaign contributions were not from outside the state. He made a campaign issue out of Trantalis’s support from the LGBT advocacy organization the Victory Fund, after a campaign fundraiser took place in Miami.

“It’s not so much the organization, it’s where the money came from,” Roberts said at a recent election debate. “Things that come from Washington, D.C., quite frankly, bother me. … I think that takes away from the home rule we all want to have in the city of Fort Lauderdale. … It could be aliens from outer space from D.C., as far as I’m concerned. I just don’t think it belongs in our local election.”

Trantalis said supporters around the country think it’s important for gay candidates to serve in office, and “I appreciate the support. … Why anyone would take issue with that, I have absolutely no idea. If you look at the campaign donations of both of us, all of the donations don’t just come from the boundaries of Fort Lauderdale, and there’s no reason why they should.”

Asked in a Sun Sentinel questionnaire what character trait makes him the best candidate, Roberts said, “proven leadership with the ability to selflessly bring people together on a shared vision.”

Trantalis said, “I listen to the residents.”

Trantalis

Roberts