Our town deserves better than this.
Since this Commission took office less than two years ago, Surfside has burned through seven town managers and five police chiefs. Dozens of experienced employees — building officials, finance staff, parks directors, public works leaders — have walked out the door. The institutional knowledge that keeps a town running is gone. In its place: a $20,000-a-month consultant and a government that lurches from one crisis to the next.
in under two years.
The people responsible want promotions. Vice Mayor Tina Paul — who helped create this mess from the dais — is now running for Mayor. Mark Blumstein, the town manager fired for cause at 1:30 in the morning with no replacement lined up, is running too. Blumstein was publicly reprimanded by the Florida Supreme Court, drew a formal constitutional-rights warning from the state FOP, and oversaw a staff exodus that gutted every major department. These are not the people who fix what’s broken. They’re the ones who broke it.
And while our government falls apart, developers are moving in. The Kushner project has turned Collins Avenue into a daily nightmare — twenty-minute drives to go six blocks. A $1.7 million property taxpayers were told would benefit the community became a developer’s office. A 12-story Live Local Act project has been filed on 95th Street, and the Commission has said nothing and done nothing to fight it. Developers see a town in chaos. They see leadership too distracted to push back. And they are taking full advantage.
Surfside is a small town. It doesn’t take much to lose it. One bad zoning deal, one more Live Local project nobody bothers to challenge, one more year of turnover and dysfunction — and the town we moved here for starts to disappear. This isn’t about politics. It’s about whether Surfside remains a place where residents come first, or becomes a town run for the benefit of developers.
It’s time to put Surfside first.