Voters in the Town of Loxahatchee Groves will choose a new councilman to fill Seat 4 on Tuesday, March 11. The winner will replace Councilman Robert Shorr, who is departing the dais after two terms in office.
Three candidates are hoping to replace Shorr. They include Paul T. Coleman II, who narrowly lost to Shorr in 2022, as well as first-time candidates Steven Hoffman and Brian William Zdunowski.
Also returning to the dais after the March election will be former Councilwoman Lisa El-Ramey, who was unopposed for Seat 2, replacing Councilwoman Laura Danowski.
Paul Coleman — A third generation Floridian, this is Coleman’s second attempt at winning a council seat. He fell just 10 votes short of winning Seat 4 three years ago.
“I live in the home I grew up in in Loxahatchee Groves and have resided here for 48 years,” Coleman said. “My wife and I chose to purchase the house from my father when we got married, because this is where we wanted to raise our family.”
He said he enjoys the community’s rural lifestyle while still being close to all the amenities available in Palm Beach County. “To say that I am invested in safeguarding the Town of Loxahatchee Groves’ rural character and appeal is an understatement,” Coleman said.
He currently works as a senior structural building inspector for Palm Beach County and has worked on and off in the construction field his entire life, and some years working for “big corporate retail.”
“Both of these experiences led me to positions of leadership, time management and fiscal management, which I think are key attributes for individuals leading any municipality,” Coleman said. “I chose to run again because I feel that I can have a positive impact on the town and uphold our charter for our residents, moving us in a positive direction for the future.”
He said that his long history in the town gives him a unique perspective.
“I think it is very important that we remember where we have been and what we have gone through in order to move into the future,” Coleman said.
He noted that his top priorities if elected will be to “firm up our ULDC to better defend our town as it pertains to development, promote more cohesion between the council and the staff, and have a greater focus on fixing our drainage issues.”
Coleman’s vision for the town’s future centers around maintaining its rural character.
“The town needs to hold steadfast to our rural characteristics, which allow us to be what we are and defend our borders against encroaching development,” he said.
He also opposes any efforts to expand Okeechobee Blvd. “I stand with the residents of the town in maintaining our slow, safe two-lane road through our town,” Coleman said.
While he supports road projects, Coleman wants to see better planning.
“It is my opinion that the road improvements done in recent years were done without a strategic plan in place, taking into account proper drainage, road width, stabilized canal banks, etc. Moving forward, we need to develop a strategic plan as to how we are going to continue to develop the roads and implement the missing drainage and lack of road width, to name a few,” he said.
Coleman wants the town to take a more forward-thinking approach to canal maintenance.
“The canal maintenance has been reactionary over the past few decades. We need to work more toward a proactive stance on our canal and drainage issues,” he said.
Coleman noted that he thinks the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office does a good job in keeping the town safe, noting that the local crime rate is down compared to the rest of the county.
“The thing I am most proud of in the town is that we are a unique diamond in the rough when you look across the rest of the county,” he said. “We have a very diverse community from small acreage home lots to horse farms and nurseries. The community comes together in times of need and helps their neighbors.”
Finally, Coleman noted that he has been endorsed by the Hispanic Vote of Palm Beach County. “Let’s become the town we incorporated to be!” he said.
Steven Hoffman — A quail farmer, Hoffman said he is running for the council because he does not like what he sees when he attends town meetings.
“Loxahatchee Groves is a microcosm of Washington, D.C.,” he said. “I’m driving a wedge straight between the Democrats and the Republicans, which I call down here the Hatfields and McCoys.”
He wants the council and the community to focus on Loxahatchee Groves first without “wasting the residents’ time with commercial development and adding more rules, laws and regulations than we currently have.”
Hoffman has a long list of priorities to focus on once elected.
“First is transparency, then accountability!” he said. “Grants for the roads, specifically roundabouts at B Road, then other letter roads. Equestrian trails. Cameras inside the town council and GPS in the cars. Prevent Okeechobee from going from two lanes to four lanes to six lanes. Stop weaponizing code enforcement. Eliminate useless, outdated codes, and restructure management so it’s focused on what the residents want.”
The town should respond to all the growth going on around it by remembering that “Loxahatchee Groves is the ‘last frontier.’ We need to focus on Loxahatchee Groves first and protect the town,” he said.
On road improvements, Hoffman said, “Some residents are happy that their roads that were paved; other residents are unhappy. The only road that has been laid down correctly in Loxahatchee Groves is the road that Publix paid for from B Road to Okeechobee. It has 16 drains. Every other road was done without proper drainage. That’s why they’re crumbling and will continue to crumble like an oatmeal cookie. We need roundabouts and equestrian trails paid for by grants and outside funding.”
He is also not impressed by the status of canal maintenance in Loxahatchee Groves.
“The first time I’ve ever seen the canal being cleaned up was today with the bucket and the crew,” Hoffman said of the canals. “They’re disgusting. They need to be built out so we can have proper roads.”
He also wants to see the canals beautified and the addition of guardrails.
He supports the PBSO but wants to see more action on certain topics.
“God bless the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and all first responders,” Hoffman said. “Consecutive enforcement on Okeechobee is needed as far as speed. We need to be enforcing the laws where the trucks pull over every single morning on every single lettered road to pick up the immigrants. That’s a monstrosity in the morning and the evening.”
Hoffman noted that he has four children under the age of 15.
“This is, hands-down, the best place I’ve ever lived in my life, and I want to keep it as rural equestrian agricultural as long as possible. Loxahatchee Groves is God’s country,” said Hoffman, who is a member of the Community Emergency Response Team, the Loxahatchee Groves Landowners’ Association and Palms West Presbyterian Church.
Hoffman said that he is proud that “the town is waking up to the corruption and mismanagement.” He said that voters should support him because “I’m not a groomed puppet from the Hatfields or the McCoys!”
He added that he is not running what some might consider a traditional election campaign.
“I’m not asking people to trash up the neighborhood with yard signs or filling their mailboxes with fluff flyers,” he said. “No web site. It’s all word of mouth, smoke signals and tribal music. It’s going to be too big to rig!”
Brian Zdunowski — Married to an equestrian, Zdunowski purchased his five-acre farm in 2013. He works as a senior project manager and federal contractor for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
“My job as a project manager is always to be coming in on schedule and on budget, which is one of the things that I plan to focus on with the town, using that to focus on lowering the budget and increasing efficiency,” said Zdunowski, who added that he manages numerous multi-million-dollar contracts for the VA.
Zdunowski has been thinking about running for several years.
“With two of the council members leaving, one of the biggest fears was who would replace them,” he said. “With a lot of the inconsistencies in the budget and turmoil, I feel that this was a poignant moment to run.”
Zdunowski said that on the council, he plans to look deeply at the budget and the employees.
“My goal is to truly be a voice for the residents,” he said. “We should be posing a question and hearing from the residents, and voting not only in the best interests of the town, but also with the consensus of those who live here.”
His top priorities include leaving the five-acre residential agricultural minimum in place, looking into and increasing town efficiency, lowering the budget and not increasing taxes on residents. “We need to look into the inefficiencies and the budget before we look at that,” Zdunowski said regarding taxes.
He also does not want to see commercial uses encroach beyond the Southern Blvd. corridor. He also wants all commercial projects to better reflect the town’s “Rural Vista” guidelines.
“My vision is maintaining not just an equestrian, but a rural environment with all the amenities within close driving distance,” Zdunowski said. “The main thing would be to maintain our rural atmosphere while bringing modernization into Loxahatchee Groves without raising taxes. We have a lot of staff, and we have a lot of things going on in the town, but there never seems to be money there.”
He is proud of the community’s unique nature.
“I feel that we need to keep that uniqueness and keep that rural atmosphere and not change ourselves and align ourselves with anyone else, be that Wellington or Royal Palm or Westlake. Our uniqueness is what makes us great,” Zdunowski said.
He wants to see road improvements done correctly.
“We have paved a large portion of our road system. We need to see that through and finish it. However, we need to do that once and correctly,” Zdunowski said. “On our road, E Road, it was paved between Okeechobee and Collecting Canal, and it immediately needed remedies because it was not done correctly. The drainage needed to be fixed first.”
He also wants the town to focus on other infrastructure issues.
“One of the big issues is the management building behind Boonies. It is literally falling over,” Zdunowski said. “We definitely need to focus on the canals, culverts and drainage. And all of those people who do that work, their workplace is literally falling over. Safety matters, so we definitely need to make sure culverts are maintained.”
He supports the PBSO, but not the town’s current contract.
“Our town is safe, but I feel our contractual price that we are paying is a bad deal for our side,” Zdunowski said. “I don’t feel that equates to a safety issue, but I do feel that the contract with the town and sheriff’s department, and all of our contracts, should be revised on a regular basis to make sure we are getting the most for what we are paying.”
He is proud of Loxahatchee Groves as a community where the residents are friendly, and most people know each other.
“It is very similar to the place I came from, which was also rural,” Zdunowski said. “You are not going to get that feeling in Wellington, or larger communities. This is really a small town, and that makes it special.”
To learn more about Zdunowski, visit “Brian Zdunowski Campaign” on Facebook.
