Oakland Park has an at-large commission, so the top two candidates won the two vacant seats on the commission. Many members of the public noted Newbold came in third during the November election, just 38 votes behind Arnst. During this time, Lisa Jones rescinded her application and recommended fellow applicant Newbold. Then, each of the 13 candidates spoke for four minutes followed by one minute of question-and-answer from each commissioner. I totally think that was a wrong decision to make,” he said.īefore the commission voted, the public had an opportunity to express their support for candidates. “In my opinion, the spirit of the charter and the direction of the charter told us to have a special election and we went against that. 22 special meeting that he was “a little bit disappointed” that the commission did not follow the city’s charter. The commission chose to appoint a commissioner rather than waiting for a special election, though not unanimously. The resignation came just two months after the city elected two new commissioners to the dais - Commissioners Tim Lonergan and Steve Arnst, who both previously served on the commission. The 13 residents applied to fill the position vacated by former Commissioner Matthew Sparks, who resigned from the commission in January because he would be moving out of state. “Not only people with the desire to serve, but people who had brilliant ideas for the city.”

“We received 13 applications - fantastic applications,” said Mayor Aisha Gordon. A candidate will be chosen and appointed to the commission on March 1. The five are Christopher Fischer, Jennifer Garcia Kovaks, Chris Landers, Letitia Newbold and John Michael Perez. The Oakland Park City Commission has narrowed their choices for a new commissioner to five applicants during a special meeting Wednesday night.

Time To Let Go by Christoph Fischer