4 candidates qualify for Coral Springs mayor’s seat

March 12 election will pick replacement for Mayor Skip Campbell

Four people — two former mayors, an activist, and consultant — qualified to run for Coral Springs mayor by deadline.

The March 12 election will pick the replacement for Mayor Skip Campbell, who died in October.

The candidates are:

Vince Boccard, a former city commissioner who in 2010 was cleared of a charge that he violated state open government law by discussing city business with two police union officials outside the public eye. Prosecutors had pursued a misdemeanor case against him and another commissioner. But a county judge tossed the charges in 2010, leading to him being reinstated as a commissioner. Boccard left the City Commission in 2014 after term limits forced him out.

Scott Brook, a former mayor once accused of voting for a Tamarac housing project after accepting a free boat ride — with a captain and food — from the father-and-son development team of Bruce and Shawn Chait in 2006. At the time, Brook was on the Broward County Planning Council. The state Commission on Ethics recommended a $2,500 fine. Brook in 2011 said he had never rented a boat before and apologized. “I’m taking responsibility by accepting the fine,” he said at the time.

Kurt Gardner, a self-proclaimed “first-timer here” in politics. He is a brand and management consultant. He said he wants to see the city reach its full potential — “if you’re at 98 percent perfect, you want to get to 100 percent.”

Nancy Metayer, a program manager for the New Florida Majority, which describes itself on a website as “an independent political organization working to increase the voting and political power of marginalized and excluded constituencies toward an inclusive, equitable, and just Florida.” Since Friday, she said she has been on leave to concentrate on the mayoral campaign. A former member of the Broward County Soil and Water Conservation District, she said in a statement that she has had internships with the Florida House of Representatives and the White House.