Politicians Behaving Badly

This is a first-person op ed by Villij News senior writer

By Kristen Hernandez

Politicians make many promises, especially when campaigning for your vote. But the political air has shifted, and for the 2024 election cycle, candidate’s true colors come to light. Election day is upon us, and the time for change in the city of Pompano Beach is now!

I’ve been following the candidates in each district very closely and these are some of the things I’ve personally witnessed in the past several months. I’ve watched newcomers fight a system that is overwhelmingly developer friendly. On the flipside, I saw individuals I thought I knew do some despicable, borderline illegal things.

In district one, two cousins are fighting for the coveted seat. Andrea McGee earned a peer-nominated role as Vice Mayor. When she discovered that own family member, Audrey Fesik, was trying to take her seat, the family feud began.

It began over campaign signage. McGee’s sister, Lauren McGee-Weiss, left nasty voicemails for property and business owners who displayed signage supporting Fesik. Although Fesik had clear permission to place her campaign signs in various district 1 locations, the McGee family went out of their way to have them removed. But the behavior escalated after the McGee’s handyman, William Koerner, was caught on candid camera destroying several of Fesik’s campaign signs. That’s a not-so-handy guy.

During a Q&A event that began as a debate challenge, the drama turned up. Fesik challenged McGee and it was initially accepted. But when the McGee family’s legal tactics failed to intimidate Fesik, they ganged up on her during Fesik’s event. McGee stood outside the Emma Lou Olson Civic Center while Fesik spoke to residents inside. McGee claimed it was illegal for her to be on stage next to Fesik because of some murky campaign funding rule. It’s enlightening to see which rules are followed and which aren’t.

The rest of the McGee clan stayed inside, and heckled and bullied Fesik the entire few hours she spoke. I watched as they brought Fesik’s stepdaughter to corner Fesik and air out their private family drama in a public forum.

The most inappropriate thing I witnessed was when Maria “Moka” McGee, Andrea McGee’s mother, tampered with republican sample ballots by taking a black sharpie and circling her daughter’s name, which happened to be over Audrey’s. Hundreds of marked sample ballots were given out. Fear of a loss can drive a person to some ridiculous behavior.

In district 2, Rhonda Eaton doesn’t have a challenger, so she’ll win by default. However, her questionable behavior at the Olson center was disturbing. Eaton didn’t bother to speak with many people the few times I saw her. Instead, she took the time to stomp signage into any space it could fit for Go Pompano, which supports the amendments for the proposed city charter changes.

Turns out Ms. Eaton also runs a political Pac which is funding the majority of the flyers circulating for Go Pompano in support of the upcoming amendments for the proposed city charter changes. The amendments are cloaked in vague verbiage designed to confuse. Is it appropriate for a sitting commissioner to also run a political Pac that doesn’t clearly state who’s behind it? Campaign text messages from McGee also included Go Pompano messages funded by the Pac, not the McGee campaign.

One thing is clear: the proposed changes to the city charter weren’t made for the benefit of Pompano residents. Villij News holds firm to our stance of being against those changes.

In district 3, Alison Fournier has been challenged by former commissioner, Tom McMahon. I’ve heard rumors recently about his bad behavior towards residents who don’t support the charter changes, but it wasn’t until I had my own run-in with McMahon that I realized how bad he’d be for Pompano Beach.

There’s something ceremonial about voting on election day, but this year I chose to vote early at the Emma Lou Olson Civic Center located at 1801 NE 6^th street. Candidates from districts one, two and three were there with occasional appearances by Mayor Rex Hardin. The usually beautiful civic center was peppered with so much signage, it gave me a headache. 

Initially, I was approached by Eaton about how great the charter changes would be, especially for the Northwest community. Perhaps she didn’t realize that I’ve been reporting on the increased gentrification to make room for the city’s new downtown on Dixie Highway and Atlantic Boulevard.

McMahon realized I worked at “the other paper” (tokenism much?) and pulled up our Villij News Instagram page. He made a scene, claiming it was illegal for us to tell voters why we believe residents should vote NO for the city charter change. Imagine that! That’s news to me, that a local newspaper can’t inform and say, Vote NO, on something we believe can have potentially devastating consequences.

Hey McMahon, freedom of speech is still a thing in this country. And voter intimidation is a no-no.

McMahon was often seen becoming aggressive to anyone who didn’t agree with his view. BSO was called at least twice after a discussion with McMahon turned into a nasty, parking lot argument.

District 4 has perhaps seen the least amount of political drama. Candidates Beverly Perkins, Ed Phillips, and John “Jay” Jones campaigned hard and showed their passion and professionalism.

But in district 5, Barry Moss is retiring, and Cyndy Floyd is fighting another candidate, Darlene Smith, who is supported by Moss. You may remember Moss as the commissioner who spat at Cyndy Floyd in a previous election cycle.

Moss chose to use his remaining time in office to trash Cyndy and push Smith into power. He attended a candidate speaking event in Palm Aire that Cyndy couldn’t attend due to a prior engagement. Video footage showed Moss speaking badly of Cyndy’s character and making crude jokes, which attempted to undermine the hard work Cyndy accomplished during her former term as commissioner.

Cyndy is known for being an advocate for the black community, and fights each day for women of color, just like Beverly Perkins and mayoral candidate, Debresia Lesane. They are fierce, protective black women who fight to preserve and celebrate the rich cultural history of the black community, while ensuring it doesn’t get washed away by another political tide.

Now, go vote!