Send Resnick, Newton back to commission seats
Wilton Manors voters have four accomplished candidates to choose from for two open City Commission seats on the Nov. 6 ballot.
The top two vote-getters will win the seats and serve four-year terms.
Two of the candidates are on the commission now – Mayor Gary Resnick and Commissioner Scott Newton. The challengers – retiree Paul Rolli and social worker Katharine
“Kat” Campbell – say it’s time for “new blood.”
Nonetheless, voters should support the incumbents.
Resnick, an attorney, has served on the commission for 20 years and has been mayor for the last 10. He had indicated that he wouldn’t run again, but he said he changed his mind because residents urged him to seek re-election.
However, Resnick, 58, said he decided not to run again for mayor because “it’s time to pass the torch.” He said being mayor is a demanding job and that “at some point you get past your prime.”
But he found the idea of serving as a commissioner again appealing.
Newton, 61, has been a city commissioner for the last 18 years and cheerfully noted that if he’s elected again, he would be the “only straight person” on the commission. In the last few decades, Wilton Manors has become one of the most popular cities in Florida for LGBTQ people.
The transition from blue-collar town to gay community has gone well, and Resnick and Newton deserve credit for helping make Wilton Manors the vibrant and well-governed city that it is today.
Wilton Manors has become a “very progressive, walkable, friendly village in an urban environment,” Resnick said in his questionnaire. “I would like to continue our efforts.”
Newton has lived in Wilton Manors for 59 years and is a hail-fellow-well-met politician. He praised all three of his competitors
during the endorsement interview. “It would be a privilege to work with all of these people.”
Newton owns a furnishings business in the city and has three children who grew up in Wilton Manors. He agrees that the commission could use some “fresh blood,” but he contends that he’s provided needed candor during his many years on the commission.
“I’m told I stir things up,” he said.
Campbell and Rolli would be fine commissioners, too.
Rolli, 67, retired to Wilton Manors 12 years ago after a long and successful career with the Internal Revenue Service. He said the city needs “a fresh voice” and that it is on the cusp of dramatic change. Those changes need to be executed “through visionary leadership, not just day-to-day operational management.”
Campbell, 42, is a social worker who has lived in Wilton Manors for eight years. She has a wife and a 10-year-old daughter.
She contends that her background as a social worker would enable her “to build community and negotiate the challenges we face.”
Like Rolli, Campbell said the city needs to adopt a more strategic approach to growth.
All four candidates agree the narrowing of Wilton Drive has been a contentious issue and that the project will improve the city’s small-town image while aggravating its traffic problems.
Whatever voters decide on Nov. 6, it appears the city will continue to have a collegial group of commissioners who are quite proud of their town and eager to make it better.
Editorials are the opinion of the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board and written by one of its members or a designee. The Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Rosemary O'Hara, Andy Reid and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson.