Mayor ousted as three newcomers win seats; incumbent ’did not expect this at all’
Related: Overflow crowd welcomes new council as incoming mayor lays out his agenda
By Brian Biggane
In a surprising vote that all but ended the effort in South Palm Beach to build a new Town Hall, mayoral candidate Rafael Pineiro and the two first-time council candidates aligned with him swept to victory in the March 10 town election.
Pineiro ended the 11-year run of Mayor Bonnie Fischer, securing about 52% of the vote. Fran Attardi led all five Town Council candidates in the race for three council openings and newcomer Adrian Burcet finished second.
Pineiro, Attardi and Burcet won regular four-year terms, though a machine recount was mandated because of the closeness of the finish between Burcet and the third-place council finisher, incumbent Sandra Beckett.
Beckett was also elected, but her finish — with four fewer votes than Burcet received — left her with only a two-year unexpired term.
Defeated in the election were Vice Mayor Monte Berendes, who finished fourth, and Council member Elvadianne Culbertson, who came in fifth.
Council member Ray McMillan was the lone incumbent not up for election; his term runs until March 2028.
None of the three newcomers has any experience in town government.
Berendes said the results caught him totally by surprise.
“I am in complete shock,” he said. “This just blows me away. I did not expect this at all.”
Fischer, first elected to the council in 2011 and as mayor in 2015, was more subdued.
“It’s a disappointment,” she said after the results were posted. “We had a good council, working together, and it will be interesting to see now what happens with the town.”
The council spent much of the past two years working toward building a new Town Hall to replace the existing one. Fort Lauderdale-based CPZ Architects was hired and delivered drawings for a new two-story building expected to cost about $6-7 million.
Pineiro made it the focal point of his campaign to stop the project and to hire an engineering firm to study the possibility of renovating the existing building.
Berendes and Fischer have both gone on record in the past saying Pineiro didn’t have all the facts and that, after nearly 10 years of planning, the time for a new building had come.
“I feel like Rafael misled a lot of people,” Berendes said, “putting out a lot of misinformation on what was going on. But it’s on him now.”
Fischer said she was “calmer than I thought I would be” upon getting the results.
“I’ve had a good run,” she said. “I would have liked to have done more, especially with the beaches and the things I was working on. I’ve spent many years on beach issues.
“I never looked at it being a burden, I really didn’t. I enjoyed it. My position allowed me to meet a lot of people I probably wouldn’t, and that’s very important to me.”
Mayor
R. Pineiro* 234
B. Fischer (I) 217
Town Council (three seats)
F. Attardi* 262
A. Burcet* 237
S. Beckett (I)*^ 233
M. Berendes (I) 208
E. Culbertson (I) 177
(I) Incumbent
*Elected to four-year term
*^Elected to two-year unexpired term
Source: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections
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