Brook best choice for Coral Springs

On March 12, Coral Springs voters will decide which of four candidates is best prepared to fill the big shoes left by the passing of former Mayor Skip Campbell.

Two of the candidates — Scott Brook, 54, and Vincent Boccard, 63 — have previously served as mayor. Both did a good job, though their terms were not drama-free.

The other two candidates — Nancy Metayer, 31, and Kurt Gardner, 36 — are well-meaning newcomers, but both lack the experience needed to lead the city through this time of change.

The mayor’s post is not the only seat in flux on the city’s five-member commission. Commissioner Dan Daley’s election to the Florida House of Representatives will soon open a second seat. And when you consider that a third seat was just filled by newcomer Joshua Simmons in November, you see the transformation taking place at City Hall.

The question is, who’s best suited to soundly lead the commission during this transition?

In weighing their choices, voters should be guided by the legacy of Campbell, who, before his sudden death in October, was known as a bridge builder and leader among peers. He spoke out against constructing a Taj Mahal-like city hall, spoke up for school resource officers in every school, and stepped up to lead a statewide initiative to ban the sale of military-style assault weapons.

Campbell’s stature is hard to match, but attorney Scott Brook comes closest. We endorse Brook for mayor.

Brook served on the commission, including a term as mayor, between 2003 and 2010. He says the top issue facing the city is what “residents consider to be high property taxes.” He wants to bridge the divide that erupted in late 2017, when the commission ignored a citizen’s outcry in raising property taxes 23 percent. Six months later, and without Campbell’s support, commissioners asked voters to raise taxes again via three bond referendums. All three were shot down, suggesting the commission was out of touch with its constituents.

“I would have held town hall meetings before making that decision. I doubt I would have put it on the ballot,” Brook said during a joint candidate interview with the South Florida Sun Sentinel editorial board. That said, though, “I trust that our government did the right thing.”

If elected, Brook wants to create a “Budget Academy” where citizens would spend four to six weeks doing a deep dive on the budget. He wants to address complaints about the sign ordinance and selective code enforcement, and create a lien resolution program.

He also would hold monthly “meetings with the mayor” to address people’s shaken trust in government. Brook’s demeanor is calm, his spirit embracing. He is well-suited to be a spokesman for the city.

Brook is not without blemish, though. In 2011, he was accused of voting for a Tamarac housing development after accepting a private family boat ride — with a captain and food — from the project’s father-andson development team. Brook was on the Broward County Planning Council at the time and failed to report the gift, as required. Frankly, he should have known better. He was a lawyer and seasoned politician, after all. But he accepted responsibility and paid a $2,500 fine.

After staying out of politics for nine years, Brook is back with a message of renewal. He straddles the fence on some issues, like raising taxes, perhaps knowing the built-out city needs updates to maintain its appeal. And with endorsements from the police and fire unions, it’s unclear where he would tighten the belt. But he’s running a strong campaign that shows he can bring people together.

“Scott is one of the most fair-minded people I’ve ever known,” says former Broward County property appraiser Lori Parrish, who served with Brook on the Metropolitan Planning Organization. “I always say, ‘I wouldn’t do anything to your neighborhood I wouldn’t do to mine.’ He was like that. He would listen to everyone’s argument. He advocated for his neighborhood, but he was very thoughtful about people in the Southeast and Southwest and I was impressed with that.”

Besides Parrish, Brook has been endorsed by the Broward AFL-CIO, the city’s police and fire unions, as well as Palm Beach State Attorney Dave Aronberg, Broward Commissioner Mark Bogen and former Coral Springs commissioner Lou Cimaglia, among others.

Boccard preceded Campbell as mayor, having served on the commission from 2006 to 2014. He is the second-strongest candidate in the race. We say that because we believe experience on a commission, a city board or with a city service club, matters.

We also give Boccard credit for having made a tough vote during the recession, one that has cost him the police union’s support in this campaign.

“In 2012, I took the bold step to do pension reform,” he said. “We saved the city over $40 million over a 10- to 15-year period and we also saved the pension. That was a tough decision. I felt in my heart it was the right thing to do for the city. It was unsustainable for the city and the right thing to do for police, so they wouldn’t get a little pink slip that says, ‘Sorry, there’s no money.’”

In March 2010, Boccard and fellow Commissioner Tom Power were charged with violating the Sunshine Law by meeting privately at a restaurant with police union officials. They said they were not meeting to discuss city business, but to mend fences. The charges were dismissed before the trial’s closing arguments. "You are assuming the appearance of impropriety creates impropriety," the judge told the prosecutor. Regardless, Boccard showed poor judgment in this matter. The public has a right to hear such discussions, especially those that could affect future budget decisions.

During his time as mayor, Boccard is proud of having rebranded the city and for having laid the foundation for a new city hall, which he aptly described as a “political football.”

"Mayor Campbell trashed the project in his campaign, but once he found out the needs of the city and how we would fund the city hall, it was the right thing to do. … We had bonds rolling over, so there was zero increase in taxes.” The delay, he notes, caused the project’s cost to increase by $13 million.

“The city hall was the catalyst for the downtown,” he says. “It promoted the downtown.”

Boccard said he didn’t support the 2017 property tax increase, but we found his explanation concerning.

The city, he said, is “going to have to raises taxes as we move along, because like anything else, the cost of doing business is more, and you have to raise taxes accordingly.” He said the commission “took a big bold step” with the tax increase. “I give Skip Campbell credit for that.”

Wait, does that mean he would have voted for the increase, too? “I would have voted no,” he said. “I would have been raising taxes all along.”

Since high school, Metayer has immersed herself in government. She’s been an intern for two state representatives, for former U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and for the White House. She’s taken a leave from her job as a “climate justice organizer” with the New Florida Majority to work on her campaign.

An elected member of the Broward County Soil and Water Conservation District, she’s received a host of endorsements, including from Ruth’s List, Broward Young Democrats, SEIU 32BJ, and Broward Commissioner Dale Holness, Tamarac Commissioner Mike Gelin and State Rep. Shevrin Jones.

Metayer said she wants to harness the strength of the city’s diversity and young people. She also wants to bring a new leadership vision around development, the budget and environmental resiliency.

She said the problem with the new city hall is where it was built. “The land it was previously on, it should have stayed there.”

“People want to make sure the money is spent properly,” she said. “Right now our city is in a financial crisis, from what I’ve been told from Michael Goodrum, our city manager. If we do not scale back and really use our finances responsibly, in 10 years, our city can go bankrupt.” She did not make clear, however, where she would scale back spending.

The fourth candidate, Kurt Gardner, is an independent business consultant who specializes in branding. He says Coral Springs “needs brand revamping” to expand economic development. He says he would bring the average person’s voice to the commission. He also believes the city’s sign ordinance needs work, code enforcement should be more just, and that city communications need to be improved.

Like Metayer, Gardner is a smart and impressive candidate with much to offer. We only wish they had a record of civic involvement in the city.

Brook is not Skip Campbell, but he’s a known quantity, a proven quantity. He will bring people together to keep the city on track. We encourage Coral Springs residents to vote for Brook for mayor.

Scott Brook