Filing for next March’s Loxahatchee Groves municipal election will open at noon on Tuesday, Nov. 3 and closes at noon on Tuesday, Nov. 10.
There will be two seats up for election: Seat 2, currently held by Councilman Jim Rockett, and Seat 4, currently held by Mayor Dave Browning.
As of Tuesday, the only person to have officially filed campaign paperwork is community activist Todd McLendon. He has filed to run for Seat 2. McLendon unsuccessfully challenged Rockett for Seat 2 three years ago.
The election itself would have been held on Tuesday, March 8, but was moved to Tuesday, March 15 and will be held concurrently with Florida’s presidential primary.
Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher advised municipalities earlier this year that she would not be able to conduct municipal elections just a week before the primary and urged communities to move their election dates to the primary date.
This change also required an earlier filing deadline, but will allow for early voting, a convenience not usually given to municipal elections.
“I don’t think it’s going to affect the outcome much,” Browning said of the date change. “We will be registering early and basically filing in November with an election in March, so it’s kind of a long way ahead. But at the same time, I don’t see any problem with running the election at the same time as the presidential primary.”
While Browning has not filed his paperwork, he is expecting to run for another three-year term. He said that his next term will be important for the future of the town.
“We’re in the process of establishing some very important usage and criteria,” he said. “We’re beginning to flesh out what’s going on with Southern and Okeechobee [boulevards], and these issues that popped up recently regarding animal cruelty. I think we’ve also got a problem out here with some very substandard housing that’s kind of tucked back into the woods, and I think it’s something we’re going to have to deal with and take care of. Those are some of the things that I want to carry out and keep on going.”
Browning said that he wants to continue to represent the people as he has for many years.
“There’s going to be no surprises from my part,” he said. “Voters pretty well know what they have.”
