Norwich native takes over as mayor of Fort Lauderdale.

Dean Trantalis is Florida city’s first openly gay mayor

Growing up in Norwich in the 1960s and ’70s, Dean Trantalis became interested in politics early on in life, serving on student government boards at Kelly Junior High School and Norwich Free Academy.

Then, after graduating Boston University with a degree in political science, he served as a legislative assistant to then-Congressman Chris Dodd.

“I was always somewhat active participating in some cause,” Trantalis, 64, said Thursday, two days after he was sworn in as mayor of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where he became the first openly gay mayor of the city with a population of 178,752. “I was involved in high school when the Ralph Nader movement became very popular. I was involved in his causes.”

After working for two years for Dodd, the 1971 NFA graduate was accepted at Stetson University College of Law in St. Petersburg, where he graduated in 1979. He passed both the Connecticut and Florida bar exams, and returned to his hometown to work for attorney Martin Rutchik for two years before relocating to Fort Lauderdale in 1982.

“I’ve been here ever since,” Trantalis said. “I moved here and focused on building my career as a young attorney and got involved in the equal rights movement in Broward County in the early 1990s.”

Political start

Trantalis first entered politics as an adult in 2003, when he ran and won a seat on the Fort Lauderdale City Commission. He stepped down when the three-year term ended, and ran again in 2013 and won. He won re-election in 2016, and in 2017 decided to run for the part-time, three-year mayoral position.

On March 13, he easily defeated the former police chief in a runoff election that featured issues including whether the city’s crumbling infrastructure could support rapid development and why the city allows a regularly scheduled gun show to use a city-owned auditorium. Prior to his election, Trantalis protested the gun show, calling it “a sin” that the city continued to support it, according to a story in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper.

The paper gave Trantalis a glowing endorsement in January, prior to the first election that yielded no winner with more than the required 50 percent of the vote, leading to the March 13 runoff. The endorsement called Trantalis “smart and personable. He’s also accessible, responsive and committed to smart growth,” the editorial said.

Trantalis is a Democrat, but in Fort Lauderdale, candidates for local office run without party labels.

“It needs to be that way,” Trantalis said, “because Fort Lauderdale has a predominantly Democratic registration, so this opens it up to fairer election with no party affiliation.”

Although a much larger city than Norwich, Fort Lauderdale also has a part-time mayor who works with the city manager. The position is limited to three, three-year terms.

No surprise

Trantalis’ election thrilled but didn’t surprise attorney Rutchik, his former employer in Norwich.

“Dean was a young lawyer in my office in Norwich,” Rutchik said. “He was a sincere, compassionate, friendly and well-motivated lawyer. At that time, he was concerned about the community and civil rights. He left Norwich and moved to Florida for greater opportunities. We lost a good lawyer and one who cared about his community.”

Rutchik said Trantalis had to overcome prejudice against the gay community and didn’t let it interfere with his career as “he climbed the ladder and became the first openly gay mayor of Fort Lauderdale.”

“I am so filled with pride for him,” Rutchik said.

Trantalis is the son of John W. and Viola Trantalis of Norwich. His father, who was a sales executive at Bemis Corp. in Plainfield, died about 10 years ago. His mother still lives in Norwich. His brother William Trantalis splits time between Norwich and Fort Lauderdale, and his brother Jeffrey Trantalis lives in Delray Beach, Fla., and sister, Marilyn Steinmuller, lives in Coral Springs, Fla.

The new mayor said he tries to return to Norwich at least once a month to visit his mother and others, but the campaign interrupted that schedule.

“Now that the campaign is over, I can resume my monthly visits,” he said, starting with a planned one next weekend.