SURFSIDE, Fla. – Residents of Surfside will soon hit the polls to decide the town’s next mayor.
The current mayor is Shlomo Danzinger. He’s running for re-election.
“We got a lot done in the last two years,” he said.
Local 10 News’ Hatzel Vela asked Danzinger about flooding, a major problem in Surfside and other coastal communities.
“What we need to work on is mitigation,” he said. “How do we get that water out faster so it’s not creating disruptions to the town, and damages.”
The mayor has often faced criticism for being too developer-friendly, but on Friday he said zoning codes have not changed.
“Building setbacks, everything has remained the same,” he said. “We haven’t changed it. As a matter of fact, most of the larger homes you’re seeing here were approved before we even got into office.”
In two short years, Danzinger has been on the hot seat, getting heat for not flying the pride flag at town hall, for making what some thought was a racist remark against his fellow commissioner, and he’s even been called dictatorial.
“It’s a little ridiculous,” he said.
Danzinger’s opponent is former Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett, who told Local 10 News he’s running because he wants to make sure Surfside stays the way it is.
“These guys want to take the downtown, make it modern, tear it down, build it up, add more people,” Burkett said. “We don’t need more people in Surfside. We need to take care of the people we have.”
Unlike cities like Hialeah or counties like Miami-Dade, Surfside doesn’t use a strong-mayor system, it is a council-driven system, where the mayor’s vote has the same weight as the town’s four commissioners. A hired town manager runs day-to-day business instead.
“It bothers me to see the people in power right now because they don’t care about the city,” said Burkett. “They’re serving themselves.”
It’s a small town where the politics have gotten dirty.
“That’s the kind of silliness that we have coming from that side,” Burkett said, referencing a flyer.
Election Day in Surfside will be on March 19.