Candidates for mayor and two Palmetto Bay council seats met residents Saturday, Oct. 3, at a forum held from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. during the Central Makers Market at the Gold Coast Railroad Museum. Lisa Merkin and Barbara Ferenczi organized the event.
The forum covered the mayor’s race and the races for District Seat 1 and District Seat 3. Merkin, who runs the non-partisan Around Palmetto Bay social media channel, moderated a set of questions that residents had submitted by email. David Singer, a mayoral candidate, could not attend in person because he was on a flight. He joined by video, but the connection dropped before the forum ended.
Mayoral candidates Tamara Mourino and Karen Baez-Wallace took part, along with council candidates Pam Gorman and Tana Llinas for Seat 1, and A.J. “AL” Lara, Lasaly Changkachith, Alan “AlJohn” Farquharson and Carl Crawford for Seat 3. Mayor Karyn Cunningham, Vice Mayor Mark Merwitzer and Councilmembers Marsha Matson and Patrick Fiore also attended.
After the formal questions, candidates stayed on to talk with residents one on one. They gathered on the rear platform of the Ferdinand Magellan, a presidential railcar built by the Pullman Company in 1928. The car was rebuilt during World War II as an armored rail car for President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The museum also hosts a monthly market on the first Saturday of each month, and admission is free.
