Plantation council seat open until next election

The Plantation council seat of a member who died this week will stay vacant until the Nov. 6 election, according to the city clerk’s office.

Councilman Jerry Fadgen died Monday afternoon at his Plantation home after a landscaping accident.

The Medical Examiner’s office said Wednesday that Fadgen, 72, fell out of a backyard tree — his trimming tools still in the tree well above the ladder — and suffered a broken neck.

Fadgen was a city councilman from 1995-2011 and again from 2013-15. Fadgen was elected again in November 2016. Earlier this year, he resigned his council seat to run for mayor for the third time after the sitting mayor announced her retirement. His resignation was effective Nov. 6, and the election for that seat had already been planned.

Whoever wins that seat will serve two years, until the term expires in November 2020.

Qualifying begins 12 p.m. June 18 and ends 12 p.m. June 22.

The visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. Monday at St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church, 200 N. University Drive in Plantation. Mass will be 1 p.m. Tuesday at the church, and burial will follow in North Lauderdale.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be sent to the Plantation Historical Society, St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church, or A Chosen Child, an adoption agency in Orlando.

Fadgen