Reelect Lazarow, a voice of reason on panel
Four people are running for Seat 4 on the Hallandale Beach City Commission, but two are considered the frontrunners: incumbent Michele Lazarow, who has served admirably; and her seriousminded opponent, Dmitriy Yakubovich, a businessman who says the commission needs change.
Yakubovich is right. The commission needs change, but not in this seat and not in his style.
The temperament Yakubovich displayed during our joint candidate interview— getting his back up when follow-up questions were asked, for example— evidenced a force of will that makes him a successful entrepreneur, but thatwould hardly wearwell on a city commission with differences of opinion.
Lazarow’s eight years of experience make her the best candidate to address the city’s budget and infrastructure problems, which she calls the top challenges.
While devoting time on the commission to her pet issue— animal rights— through legislation aimed at puppy mills, Lazarow has also been a moderating voice on budgetary concerns, voting to keep property taxes down and spending limited.
She also serves as a voice of moderation on another bubbling concern in Hallandale— the national reckoning over police brutality and systemic racism, balanced against concerns about police morale.
In June, the city’s SWAT team resigned en masse, though its officers remain on the force. The officers cited the anti-police protests supported by Vice Mayor Sabrina Javellana, who was elected in 2018 and is not up for election this year.
The police apparently want a stronger ally than Lazarow on the board, someone more like City Commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub, whose husband is a lawenforcement officer and who encouraged Yakubovich to run. The police unions are actively campaigning for him.
Lazarow is right to see the budget as the city’s greatest issue. Her concerns should not be taken as an attempt to deny police greater benefits. And her support for body cameras, which even the police, and eventually the police union, came to largely support after initial opposition, should not be seen as anti-police.
“I implemented body cameras for a reason— we’ve had our officers exonerated from a few cases already. There’s been instances where they weren’t on, which is very disappointing, butwe have been able to really put some transparency in that department,” Lazarow said in a joint candidate interview with the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board.
“Unfortunately, the buzzwords are now‘ defunding the police.’ That is not what I am interested in doing.”
Still, the union has elected to work against her, attempting to install a man who leads the board of directors of the Beach Club Condominium Association. In June, Lima-Taub appointed Yakubovich to the Hallandale Beach Preservation Advisory Board, giving him a sliver of city experience.
“I think the incumbent has been there for eight years with not much record to show for it,” he said during our interview. “I on the other hand bring a strong business expertise which I think the city is lacking right now.”
The other three candidates on the ballot are Rodger Skipper, the owner of a paddleboard rental company; construction businessman Ruel Miles; and former city commissioner Bill Julian.
However, on Sept. 3, Skipper announced his withdrawal from the race. In his withdrawal letter, he praised Miles, calling him “a very talented and committed candidate” who “deserves respect and our support.”
But court records from Miami-Dade and Broward counties list an array of criminal and civil issues for Miles dating back to the 1980s, most recently a foreclosure on a more than $700,000 mortgage that is still pending in Broward County Court to which he is a party.
As for Julian, voters may remember him fromhis previous time on the city commission, which ended in 2016 when hewas defeated for re-election by Lima-Taub following allegations of bribery. Julian was subsequently cleared by the Broward State Attorney’s office, but his return to the commission would mean a return to the infighting of yesteryear.
We recommend voters reelect Michele Lazarow to a third term on the Hallandale Beach City Commission.