Vice Mayor Michelle Gomez sign before it was confiscated by the city for being on city property.
By: Sharon Aron Baron
Tamarac Vice Mayor Michelle Gomez, knows a thing or two about campaigning, after all, she was successfully elected in 2014 to serve as a city commissioner.
Gomez may have forgotten some important election rules, namely, you cannot place campaign signs on private and city property – even if you are an elected official.
Gomez did both, and had three of them confiscated by Tamarac’s code enforcement department on Wednesday.
One of her large signs was placed on a contentious piece of city-owned land in her own district on the northeast corner of Rock Island Road and Commercial Blvd – slated to be the new home of a storage facility.
We reported that the 1.75 acre property, which will now be used for a storage facility, was given to the city by the Chaits of Prestige Homes after they purchased the Sabal Palm and Monterrey Golf courses when they were building homes. The city accepted the property and were planning to build a fire station on the lot, but then decided to renovate and improve the station located further east. The Chaits then sued the city for the land, and a compromise was made to sell the land and split the proceeds.
An email sent out by Code Enforcement Manager Scott Krajewski to Gomez on September 17, said:
Hi Ms. Gomez,
My Department has received a complaint as to signage on City owned property. Per City Ordinance this is not permitted. We are asking that the three signs attached be removed. I will be in the Office at 8:00 am on Tuesday if I can be of assistance.
Thank you,
Scott
Political signs, like elections, are always contentious. Just this week we reported that mayoral candidate Elvin Villalobos’ signs were vandalized.
Email below: