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The race for Mayor of Boynton Beach is in our Election Spotlight. Ty Penserga is termed out, making way for four candidates vying for his seat next month.
They include businessman Courtlandt McQuire who owns two advertising agencies and has spent time on several city advisory boards. He is currently serving as Vice Chair of the Community Redevelopment Agency Advisory Board.
The Boynton Beach Mall property is up for sale but everyone has a different idea of what they want to see developed there. We asked McQuire for his thoughts.
"What we need is a mix, right? So definitely mall and retail is critical, restaurant. I mean Boynton is largely a restaurant desert. That is a huge component. But what about hotel. You can't attract tourism without hotels and we have very little of that."
Candidate David Merker is a one-time Boynton Beach City Commissioner, serving from 2014 to 2016 and he says he was also a city commissioner in New Jersey.
Merker says he's running because Boynton is a "very diverse community" and he wants to bring people together. He also brought up the need for "respect," so we asked him if he feels like things are not currently cohesive among members of the Commission.
"That's a nice word. I emphatically, indubitably and definitely agree with that statement. It lacks leadership. It lacks feeling for the people."
Merker says the current City Commission is allowing the City Manager to control the city by taking sides to get what he wants.
Rebecca Shelton is also running for the mayoral seat. She's a realtor who previously worked in politics as a campaign manager for primarily non-partisan candidates around the county.
Shelton says it's time to give back to the people that have invested in Boynton's downtown area.
"We have a lot of people that moved here since COVID. It's a very diverse group of people that live in Boynton. And I think that we all need to be represented and I think that my experience in the county, I think my business experience and also just my level of community service...I think it actually is just the right time in my life to do it and give back to the community on this level."
Our fourth candidate, Golene Gordon, did not return our calls to request an interview.