Honorable Mayor, Vice Mayor, Commissioners:

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On Monday, July 6, 2026, the Deerfield Beach Commission will decide  whether to leave Charter §11.01, §11.02, and §7.09(2) alone - where they belong - or place ballot questions before the voters asking them to  surrender their Charter voting power by taking these provisions out of the Charter. These Charter provisions now give the voters final say over critical protections for the beach area, the main beach parking lot, and valuable City property. Removing those protections from the Charter would hand that power to any 3 vote Commission majority, giving three Commissioners the ability to weaken or eliminate these protections and open the door to overdevelopment in the beach area. This is the story of why that must not happen.

 

A Story

Years ago, the Deerfield Beach residents saw the danger clearly: The Deerfield Beach Commission was betraying its residents by giving developers what developers wanted, which was hurting the quality of life of Deerfield Beach residents. Deerfield Beach residents were also seeing other beach-side communities being ruined by the overdevelopment decisions of their Commissions. Deerfield Beach residents were farsighted and knew that they, the public, needed to protect the beach area or it would be ruined forever. 

 

So Deerfield Beach residents acted. They used the citizen petition process. They gathered signatures. They put protections of the beach area on the ballot with Charter Amendments. And the voters overwhelmingly approved these Charter protections. These Charter protections require approval of the voters before these important matters can change. Because these protections are in the City Charter, these charter protections cannot be changed with a 3-City Commissioner vote, which would be the situation if these protections were not in the Charter. These protections requiring a public vote were placed in the City Charter to protect the beach area, protect the main beach parking lot, and protect public property from being sold, leased, or traded away without voter approval.

 

The voters did this because they wanted a final say on certain important issues, and did not want any future 3-vote City Commission to betray what the public wanted on these important matters. These Charter protections have existed and worked for over 20 years. It is why Deerfield Beach has not been ruined with overdevelopment like other communities such as Pompano Beach.

 
Everyone knows that if it were not for these Charter protections of requiring a public vote of approval before any changes, that the beach area would already be ruined. Had the land use provisions for the beach area just been part of the regular land development rules, any 3-votes of Commissioners would have changed (loosened or eliminated) these protections for the worse, and the public would have been powerless to stop it. And, overdevelopment would have already occurred in the beach area.

Now the City Commission wants to destroy these Charter protections by taking them out of the City Charter, which now requires a public vote in order to change these protections. What the City Commission wants is a gift to developers. To take these protections out of the City Charter so that voters have no right to vote to approve any changes to these protections is wrong. To have the voters give up their power so a 3-vote City Commission can allow overdevelopment by lessening or eliminating the current Charter protections is wrong. 

It is clear that the public, through a petition, has not asked the City Commission for ballot questions asking that they, the public, forever surrender voter control over these protections to a 3-vote developer controlled Commission. There is no grassroots movement saying, “Please forever take away our right to vote on beach protections, the main beach parking area, and public land deals.”

The desire to take away the public’s power to vote on these important issues is coming from pro-developer City Commissioners. That’s right: the very Commission that the Charter was designed to restrain from betraying the public now wants the public to forever remove the public’s right to vote on these Charter changes, so a 3-vote Commission can allow overdevelopment by loosening or eliminating development rules to make development more profitable for developers, and the public would be powerless to stop the betrayal. Developers profit; the public’s quality of life be damned. That is the heart of the issue.

The Commission wants voters to forever give up its voter power under the Charter on these important issues now, so that later, when overdevelopment is proposed on the beach area, the main beach parking area and the sale or lease of City owned property valued at $750,000 or more, the voters will be powerless to stop it. Once Charter §§11.01 and 11.02 are gone, the Commission can allow overdevelopment by loosening or eliminating the rules, weaken the limits, and open the door to greater height, intensity, density, commercialization, loss of beach character, traffic congestion and greater difficulty providing emergency services in case of emergency — all without the current voter power in the Charter to approve or disapprove.

And once § 7.09(2) is gone, the Commission will have the freedom to favor developers and their highly-paid lobbyists to approve sales, leases, redevelopment arrangements, public-private deals, and long-term commitments involving city property without the current voter power in the Charter to approve or disapprove.

This story is simple:
- First, the people gave the Commission power in the Charter
- Then, the Commission betrayed that power
- Then, the people put that power in the Charter so the people’s vote was needed if protections were going to be changed.
- Now, the Commission wants the people to hand that power back so the Commission makes those decisions and the public is 
powerless.
- And once the people hand that power back, the public will be forever powerless to correct a City Commission betrayal to the 
public. 

What the Commission wants in these ballot issues is for a transfer of power from the voters. The Commission wants a transfer of power from the voters on these important issues, which power the voters now have under the City Charter, to the power being returned to a 3-vote City Commission, which the City Commission will have if these protections are removed from the Charter. 

What these ballot questions will do is transfer power from permanent Charter protection by the voters that the voters now have, to the political promises of City Commissioners. And we all know that political promises are not protection. City Commissioner promises change, and a political promise today is not legally binding tomorrow. And, City Commissioners change. Once the Charter protection of a public vote is gone, the voters’ legal power is gone with it.

It is clear. The City Commission ballot questions will be asking voters to give up forever their public voter power under the Charter under these Articles to the City Commission. The City Commission wants the people to take the locks of voter protection off the doors, hand over the keys, and forever trust 3-vote Commissions, who are politicked by developers and their high-priced lobbyists, not to walk through. That is not protection. That is surrender.

We do not know how this chapter of the story of Deerfield Beach will end: We do know this: a public-serving Commission would not ask its citizens to surrender the voting power the public has placed in the City Charter to protect the beach area, the main beach parking lot, and valuable public property. A public-serving Commission would respect that voter power. A public-serving Commission would not ask the people to hand that power over to any 3-vote Commission majority that will be influenced by 
developers, lobbyists, and special interests.

But a Commission that does not believe the voters should have this power will put these issues to take away the citizen’s voting power on the ballot. That Commission will ask the voters to give up their Charter protection, so that later a 3-vote majority will loosen or eliminate land development rules to allow overdevelopment, and betray the voters — while the voters, with these voter protections out of the City Charter, are powerless to stop it. That is the danger. That is the betrayal. Once the beach area is ruined, it is 
ruined forever.

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