It's official. Fort Lauderdale has a new mayor.
Dean Trantalis beat opponent Bruce Roberts on Tuesday night. Trantalis made city history by also becoming the city's first openly LGBTQ mayor.
A third candidate, Charlotte Rodstrom, did not get enough votes during the primary election in January to stay in the race.
Elizabeth Athanasakos, a Fort Lauderdale resident of 61 years, voted at the Coral Ridge Mall polling location early Tuesday. She said she was motivated to come and vote for mayor this election because of her stance on development.
"Everything has been done for the people who are visiting, and that's fine - they give money," she said. "But we pay the taxes."New dad in the city, Scott Newman, said he voted but not because of one particular issue.
“To be honest, a lot of it is cultural and social these days, just concerned about where that’s headed. With a 7-month-old, you know, thoughts change,” he said.
Some of the challenges Trantalis will have to face include key issues like fixing the city's sewage system, how to balance downtown development, and whether or not he will stay good on his promise to veto the Wave streetcar project.
Steve Glassman won Fort Lauderdale's race to be the next city commissioner for District 2. And Benjamin "Ben" Sorensen beat Warren Sturman by a close margin for the city commission seat in District 4.
Also Read: Broward County Municipal Elections: Who's Running And Where
In Lauderdale-By-The-Sea's mayoral race, Chris Vincent beat out opponent Mark Brown.
Tracey Plunkett, who lives in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, said that while she supports the city's current development she has always come out to vote in her 10 years of living there.
"It's important to participate, especially when we have mayoral races and commission spots open up," she said.
The city's other race, District 1 seat 1 on the city commission, was won by Elliot Sokolow.
Pembroke Pines also had a city commission race. Thomas "Tom" Good is the new commissioner for District 1 and Angelo Castillo is the new commissioner for District 4.
In Hallandale Beach's special election, five candidates were vying for the only open city commission seat. Mike Butler won the race with more than the majority of all votes.
While there were no candidates running for office in Coral Springs or in Pompano Beach, both cities held an election for voters to decide on how to use general obligation bond funds.
Coral Springs voted against using bond money for parks and recreation projects, as well as street projects. Pompano Beach voted in favor of using the bond money for parks and recreation projects, for street sidewalks, streetscaping and bridges and also for public safety projects.
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