Jane MusgraveRiviera Beach City Council to select a mayor from a dozen applicants after filing snafu kept all candidates off the March ballot.
Riviera Beach City Council members tonight will begin the unprecedented process of selecting a mayor after all the candidates in the March election were disqualified because they didn’t pay their filing fees correctly.
The 12 hopefuls include educator Kendra Spence-Wester, pizza shop owner Kendrick Wyly and former Council Member Doug Lawson. The three were thrown off the ballot when a judge ruled they violated state law by paying their fees with their campaign debit cards. At the time, Lawson was running to keep his council seat.
Former two-term Mayor Ronnie Felder, who filed the suit that kept the others from seeking office, was disqualified when he paid his fee from a closed account and the check bounced. He wants his old job back.
The eight other candidates are well known among city residents. Six have either held or sought office before and two political outsiders have been in the public eye for decades.
Derrick McCray Sr., owner of the popular McCray’s Backyard Bar-B-Q that was launched by his parents, and Rose Anne Brown, a longtime city spokesperson, both say they are uniquely qualified to lead the city.
McCray has been smoking ribs at his restaurants for decades and has been invited by the NFL to serve his 90-year-old family recipe at 20 Super Bowls.
Former council members who applied are: Cedrick Thomas, a former city police officer who in March lost a bid to rejoin the council after a 10-year absence; Billie Brooks, a former council member and wife of the late Bobbie Brooks, the city’s first Black mayor; and Terence Davis, an emergency management consultant.
Those who ran for office before are: Cory Blackwell, a school police officer who unsuccessfully ran for a council in 2019; Shandra Stringer, a consultant who lost a bid to become mayor in 2022; and Horace Towns, a former city housing commissioner and legislative aide who lost council races in 2016 and 2019.
While a ceremonial position, the mayor has long been the face of the turbulent city that is wrestling with massive redevelopment efforts and a water system sorely in need of an estimated $350 million upgrade.
In his application, Felder owned the gaffe that cost him the election and set the stage for the council — not voters — to pick the mayor.
“This mistake was mine alone, and I deeply regret the position it has placed our city in,” Felder wrote. “I have learned from this experience and am committed to demonstrating the accountability that our residents deserve from their leaders.”
Those who have never held city office are trying to use their outsider status to their advantage.
Blackwell said the city has suffered from “more than 10 years of certain individuals politically polarizing issues.”
“It’s time to elect new faces, it’s time to bring in new blood, it’s time to cultivate a council board of progressive thinkers,” Blackwell wrote.
The 82-year-old Brooks pledged not to run for office when the term is up in 2027. “(This) must not be interpreted as a resurrection to my political career,” she wrote in her application. “I have no intention of seeking this or any office at the termination of my appointment.”
Bad timing?
Last month, Wyly was charged with drunken driving after a Florida Highway Patrol trooper said his car sideswiped a bus shortly before midnight on Interstate 95.
Wyly said he hadn’t been drinking. “I hate to say this but it was more like a Black man driving situation,” he said of his March 20 arrest. “I’m fighting this case.”
It was the second arrest for Wyly in roughly three months. In December, he was charged with child abuse. While the charge was dropped, police said that the 15-year-old victim told them Wyly “gets drunk and becomes aggressive toward him.”
Wyly, who is a partner in a Marco’s Pizza franchise, said he doesn’t have a drinking problem. He said he is taking classes at Palm Beach State College and plans to someday help those struggling with addiction.
“Besides, my personal life doesn’t have anything to do with my ability to run the city,” he said. He said one of the problems in Riviera is that the private lives of elected officials too often spill over into city business.
Other personal strife
During his short-lived mayoral campaign, Wyly accused then-Council Member Tradrick McCoy of attacking him at a Riviera Beach barbershop.
McCoy, who lost his reelection bid, joined Felder in the lawsuit over the filing fees. Wyly told The Palm Beach Post that McCoy became enraged when he mentioned the suit. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office declined to press charges.
Lawson and McCoy also got into a fight after a meeting in January 2024. While the sheriff’s office said it could charge both men with misdemeanor battery, they both agreed to have the case dropped.
Lawson also faced an ethics charge in 2024 after a former council member claimed he offered to support a rezoning request sought by Safe Harbor Rybovich boatyard if it would give money to two candidates he was supporting. The Florida Commission on Ethics dismissed the complaint, saying there was no proof. Lawson denied the allegations.
Alliances to watch
Council member Fercella Davis Panier also joined Felder in the lawsuit that led to the disqualification of mayoral candidates Wyly and Spence-Wester along with council member Lawson, who she was trying to unseat. The disqualification of Lawson and a second candidate in that race meant Davis Panier was elected without opposition.
Thomas, meanwhile, was the main source for state investigators when they in 2016 charged Councilmember Bruce Guyton with violating the state’s Sunshine Law. Guyton returned to the council in March by defeating McCoy.
Thomas told investigators that Guyton privately told him that he wanted to replace Thomas on the county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization. The law prohibits elected officials from discussing city business outside public meetings. Thomas was granted immunity from prosecution in exchange for his testimony against Guyton.
Guyton, who was defeated for reelection in 2016, pleaded guilty in 2017 to the violation as part of a plea deal. The judge ordered him to pay a $500 fine and withheld adjudication, which means Guyton can have the misdemeanor charge scrubbed from his record.
Thomas also ran in March, losing to incumbent Shirley Lanier.
After receiving the applications tonight, the council has until April 18 to pick a mayor. A special council meeting is scheduled for April 14 to consider the applicants. If none wins majority support among the five-member council, the process would start over.
The city charter says the appointed mayor will serve until the next general election, which is in March 2027.
