Voters Have Spoken: Ft Laud’s Development Crowd On The Ropes BY BUDDY NEVINS The hard-pressed neighborhoods and taxpayers have spoken. Fort Lauderdale’s city election was a stunning repudiation of the downtown development crowd’s control of City Hall. It was Fort Lauderdale residents saying they had enough of sclerotic streets and sewage pouring onto lawns from a failing system, all aggravated by new construction. The election almost certainly meant The Wave, the multi-million dollar trolley system to nowhere, will lose its City Hall support. Nearly every candidate is against the costly downtown street car, which would eliminate a lane of traffic and saddle taxpayers with costs for drivers and maintenance….forever. Voters also sent a message to growth-at-any-cost City Manager Lee Feldman: Dust off your resume. It is a safe bet that Feldman will be out of a job after the election. Lee Feldman And the election was an overwhelming rejection of Mayor Jack Seiler’s legacy of a city intent on building more and more and more. Slow-growth candidate Dean Trantalis’ campaign for mayor to replace retiring Seiler would have to totally collapse for him to lose the runoff in March. He won Tuesday’s primary 46 to 31 percent over business-as-usual second-place finisher Bruce Roberts. Dean Trantalis The rest of the primary vote for mayor went to Charlotte Rodstrom. She promised to be even tougher on new developer than Trantalis, so it is unlikely many of her supporters would vote for Roberts in the runoff. Word swept Fort Lauderdale’s political world in the wake of last night’s results that Roberts will ditch his campaign manager Judy Stern, who is also a development industry lobbyist. The rumor was fueled by a tweet from another political consultant, which apparently has now been removed from Twitter. Dumping Stern could backfire since regardless of Tuesday’s results, Stern is known as a highly effective campaign manager. “It’s not happening,” Stern texted Browardbeat.com. The other results were: City Commission District 2: Again a slow-growth candidate led the field. Steven Glassman, a long time preservation and beach activist, beat Tim Smith 35-25. Smith was known as a developers supporter when he was a commissioner more than a decade ago, but he says his views have matured. District 3: Incumbent Commissioner Robert McKinzie won outright. Representing portions of northwest Fort Lauderdale, McKinzie is viewed as a pro-growth vote. District 4: Ben Sorensen, a pastor, led 42-31 over second-place finisher Warren Sturman, a cardiologist. Perhaps the most interesting part of this race was the poor finish of former Dania Beach Mayor Walter Duke III, a pro-growth candidate who received 27 percent and was the darling of the development industry. Fort Lauderdale’s development community is on the ropes. Those who make money from Seiler and Feldman’s City Hall will not go gentle into that good night. Expect a scorched earth race for mayor. Roberts is so far behind that the only way he can win is to smear Trantalis. “He needs to turn Dean into the devil,” said one political consultant who is not involved in the Fort Lauderdale election. Similar nastiness may even bleed over to District 2 and 4. Developers and lobbyists will pour thousands into political committees to produce mud slinging ads. The slow growth candidates may fight back with their own viciousness. Bottom Line: Be ready to hold your nose until the runoff on March 13.