Development top issue in race on city’s south side

Two men running to represent the south section of Fort Lauderdale agree on the top three issues: failing infrastructure, traffic and overdevelopment.

In a race where both candidates agree on the major issues, the March 13 contest has come down to one of style, character and track record.

Ben Sorensen, 39, a leadership/sales training executive who lives in Rio Vista, is running against Warren Sturman, a 60-year-old resident of Las Olas by the River apartments downtown.

The two are competing to replace term-limited attorney Romney Rogers on the City Commission, representing District 4, covering most of Fort Lauderdale south of Broward Boulevard.

The race is nonpartisan, but both candidates are registered Democrats.

Sorensen has raised more money in the race and was the top vote-getter in the Jan. 16 primary, winning 42 percent of the vote and carrying most of the precincts, according to the Broward Supervisor of Elections Office. Sturman won 31 percent. Walter Duke, the former Dania Beach mayor, was knocked out of the running when he trailed in third.

Both candidates say voters are concerned about the city’s rapid pace of dense development. Sturman said he’d consider a temporary building moratorium while the city ensures the infrastructure is ready. Sorensen said a moratorium isn’t necessary.

Both opposed the addition of apartment towers to the public Bahia Mar public property at the beach, approved by the City Commission in December. Both oppose the developer-proposed Wave streetcar system reaffirmed by the City Commission in February and signed pledges to kill it.

Sorensen said community input would drive his development votes.

“We can both encourage economic development while also preserving our quality of life,” he said in his South Florida Sun Sentinel questionnaire.

Sturman said development needs to respect neighborhoods. “I find citizens are very upset that we are being left out and ignored in the process.”

Sorensen said he cofounded a nonprofit, Mission United, to house 800 veterans, help 1,000 veterans get jobs and give them access to legal free assistance. In his time in Fort Lauderdale, he said, he wrote a draft soberhomes law, and worked to get small libraries into parks in “literary deserts” where kids need free books.

A pastor ordained by the Presbyterian Church (USA), he serves as a volunteer chaplain for the Fort Lauderdale police department, ministering to first responders and victims after tragedies.

“I own my own business,” Sorensen said, “and I’m able to set my own schedule. … That’s a real differentiating factor. I’ve got the time and energy to do this.”

Sturman, a cardiologist with an office in Lauderdale Lakes, said he’s moving his solo practice to Fort Lauderdale. Though he has doctor privileges in six hospitals, he said he doesn’t work in them regularly and has time for both jobs.

“I’ve been doing this for over 20 years. I have a practice, but you’re able to balance it, he said. “I’ve been vice president of the PTA. I’ve been a coach, I’ve been involved with the Cub Scouts, I ran for school board [in 2004]. I’ve been president for the last decade of the neighborhood association, I ran the [Community Emergency Response] Team.”

Asked what trait the candidates possess that makes them best for the job, Sturman said in his questionnaire, “I am the candidate who can be trusted to bring a neighborhood voice back to the City.”

Sorensen said, “My perseverance and determination to get things done for our city is a key character trait that makes me the best choice to represent District 4.”