Candidate Profile: Patricia Hawkins-Williams Says District 4 Can No Longer Be an Afterthought

Former state representative and Lauderdale Lakes commissioner Patricia Hawkins-Williams is running for Pompano Beach City Commission District 4, arguing that Northwest Pompano needs greater investment, stronger communication from City Hall and a meaningful role in the city’s redevelopment.

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. — Patricia Hawkins-Williams has spent 16 years in elected office, but as she campaigns for a seat on the Pompano Beach City Commission, she says her focus is on the community where she grew up.

Hawkins-Williams, a candidate for the District 4 seat, served eight years on the Lauderdale Lakes City Commission after first being elected in 2008 and subsequently spent eight years representing Broward County in the Florida House of Representatives. She served in the House from 2016 to 2024.

Now she wants to bring that experience back to Pompano Beach.

“I see. I’m looking around,” Hawkins-Williams told Villij News. “I see we have been looked over, left out and forgotten.”

For Hawkins-Williams, the central issue in the District 4 race is not simply what government does, but whether residents believe they have a meaningful role in deciding what happens to their community.

“I think communication is the key,” she said. “I think people need to feel included. And I don’t think that’s being done at this particular time.”

‘Meet people where they are’

Asked what residents should be able to see or measure after her first two-year term if she is elected, Hawkins-Williams returned repeatedly to one idea: inclusion.

She said traditional methods of government communication — including emails, websites and social media — aren’t necessarily reaching residents who are juggling jobs, housing costs and other immediate concerns.

“Sometimes instead of us actually putting it out on Facebook, on email and things like that, we need to have a team that walks the community,” Hawkins-Williams said. “Go from door to door and speak to the community and let them know what is actually going on.”

She did not place responsibility solely on District 4’s current commissioner.

“It’s not just pointing a finger at our commissioner,” she said. “It’s the commission itself. Our way of communicating and getting the information out in the community is right now poor to none, and that’s just my opinion.”

Hawkins-Williams said the economic circumstances of some District 4 residents make that outreach particularly important.

“A lot of the people that we work with in District 4, they’re working from paycheck to paycheck and sometimes no check,” she said. “When you’re working paycheck to paycheck, and sometimes no check, it’s hard for you to actually come out of that mode and be a part of what’s going on.”

Housing affordability is personal

The affordability discussion, Hawkins-Williams said, cannot be separated from the day-to-day reality of families trying to remain in Pompano Beach.

“People are hurting,” she said. “They’re just trying to keep a roof over their head for their families.”

She pointed to her own household.

“My house, I have four generations in order for all of us to be able to benefit from what we have as a family, as a whole, as a community,” she said.

Hawkins-Williams also questioned how government defines affordable housing.

“What’s affordable?” she asked. “You have two or three people in the house working and sometimes they still can’t afford housing. That’s not affordable. What’s affordable for everybody else is not affordable for the next person.”

The New Downtown — and who benefits from it

The redevelopment of Northwest Pompano emerged as one of the defining issues in Hawkins-Williams’ interview with Villij News.

She sees the city’s New Downtown project as an opportunity to bring jobs and economic development into District 4.

“The New Downtown, it creates jobs,” she said. “That’s one big thing that it would do. It would create jobs for the community. Economic opportunities.”

But Hawkins-Williams said she is equally concerned about who will be able to remain in the community as investment increases.

“My main concern is to make sure that that people that live in the area are not pushed out,” she said. “They could stay in the place they call home, they can be included in the plans that are being made, and feel a part of what’s coming.”

“Economic development shouldn’t just be one-sided,” Hawkins-Williams said. “Everybody should benefit, and District 4 has not.”

Her argument is that redevelopment should benefit existing residents instead of treating them as an afterthought.

“Look at the beach side,” Hawkins-Williams said. “When it was time for redevelopment over there, people didn’t complain about it.”

Now, she said, “it’s time to upgrade the District 4 area.”

‘We can’t be an afterthought’

Hawkins-Williams said development must begin with existing residents at the planning table — particularly if the city wants to avoid displacement.

“We have to be included in the plan. We can’t be an afterthought,” she added. “And that’s what the Northwest area has been.”

Hawkins-Williams used some of her strongest language when describing what she sees as the disparity between District 4 and other portions of Pompano Beach.

“My top priority would be District 4,” she said. “District 4 — it’s like a third-world country, and I don’t like that term of third-world country, but just look around. Everything else has been updated, invested in, except District 4.”

She said the lack of visible change is particularly striking because of how long she has been away serving in elected office elsewhere.

“When I left Pompano almost 20 years ago, it’s still the same. It’s like it was when I left here,” she said.

Experience — and a different approach to fighting

Hawkins-Williams’ candidacy is distinct in the District 4 field because she has held office at both the municipal and state levels.

She was first elected to the Lauderdale Lakes City Commission in 2008, was reelected in 2012 and served as vice mayor. She was elected to the Florida House in 2016 and remained there through 2024.

She says that experience taught her that disagreement does not have to prevent government from functioning.

“I love a good fight,” Hawkins-Williams said. “That is not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about coming to the table, agreeing to disagree, and moving forward with what was best for the people that we serve.”

Hawkins-Williams also raised concerns about recurring 3-3 divisions on Pompano Beach’s six-member commission, saying the structure can make it difficult to resolve deadlocks.

“We do have that 3-3 split,” she said. “There needs to be a different method.”

She suggested that the city should at least examine whether the number of commissioners should change.

“Either we add a commissioner, or we take away a commissioner,” she said. “One or the other.”

A moment in Tallahassee that stayed with her

Asked what she was most proud of from her eight years in the Florida Legislature, Hawkins-Williams pointed to her work involving language used to define children with special needs in Florida’s child-welfare system.

Hawkins-Williams was among the sponsors of 2022’s HB 893, a child-welfare bill that, among other changes, revised Florida’s statutory definition of a “special needs child.” The legislation passed both chambers unanimously and became law.

She recalled taking issue with language that classified children in part on the basis of racial or ethnic background.

“The color of a person’s skin does not make them a special-needs person,” Hawkins-Williams said.

She remembers standing her ground during the debate.

“If I strongly believe in something, I’m not going to back down,” she said. “Ten toes down, all the way.”

Hawkins-Williams said the experience reinforced a principle she hopes to carry into Pompano Beach government.

“If we don’t stand up for what we believe in, we’ll fall for anything.”

Coming home

For Hawkins-Williams, the campaign is also deeply tied to her family’s history.

She spoke about growing up in a family of migrant workers and the sacrifices that allowed her to pursue an education.

“My family picked beans,” she said.

She said her mother placed particular importance on education and that she eventually earned two master’s degrees.

Hawkins-Williams now describes her candidacy as an opportunity to return that investment to the community that raised her.

“I’m willing to bring that fight back to Pompano, where I was born and raised,” she said.

And after eight years in municipal government and another eight in Tallahassee, Hawkins-Williams says she believes her experience is what she can offer District 4 at a pivotal moment in its redevelopment.

“That’s experience I have under my belt,” she said, “and I’m willing to use it for the people that helped raise me and molded me to who I am.”

Her message to District 4 voters ultimately comes back to the same point she made at the beginning of the interview: the Northwest community should not watch Pompano’s next chapter from the sidelines.

“We need to have a voice at the table that understands redevelopment,” Hawkins-Williams said, “that understands we have been put on the back burner and have not been thought about until an afterthought.”

“And right now,” she said, “it’s time for a change.”