Port St. Lucie, Fla. — The Port St Lucie mayor’s race is one of the races we are watching closely this week.
And if you’ve been following of our coverage of the WastePro Settlement and the public’s frustration with trash pickup, you know, that is likely top of mind for voters.
The current mayor, Shannon Martin, is fighting to hold on to that office.
She’s facing two challengers, and both have been downright boisterous in their attacks on her leadership.
They say she and other officials have botched the situation with garbage collection so badly that it’s time to overhaul City Hall.
Dating back to the pandemic, trash has been a very serious matter in the city and now many residents say it’s why the mayor’s race is in the balance.
On the set of ARC Florida, the three candidates talked about the Waste Pro Settlement decision. They are Shannon Martin, Steve Giordano and Eric Strazzeri.
The city told residents they would be getting a tax credit, not a refund check in the mail, after the city won $24 million; essentially, the prize money for suing WastePro for years of shoddy service.
And not only would there be no cash back, sometime later, the cost of trash collection went up.
Now, the question of how many times a week should trash be collected will be a ballot issue in November.
Marco Ortiz is a small business owner. His Top Notch barbershop is a place where men talk about what’s happening in the community, he says the conversation often turns to trash pickup, the hot topic as it were, going into this election.
“We need to keep Port St. Lucie beautiful,” Ortiz said. “Of course trash collection is important. It’s Florida. It’s hot, trash brings flies and it smells, we need more reliable service.”
The mayor’s race has also been overshadowed in recent days by a dispute over campaign signs that has led to a state investigation.
Three Port St. Lucie police officers, including Mayor Shannon Martin’s husband, Lt. Aaron Martin, were placed on paid administrative leave as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement took over a criminal investigation into two campaign-sign incidents involving mayoral challenger Steve Giordano.
One of those incidents involved a confrontation between Giordano and Aaron Martin over signs placed at a home, while another involved questions about whether a Martin campaign sign had been removed or replaced without the homeowner’s permission.
We could know who the next mayor is this week, if there’s a clear majority winner, but if it’s close, two finalists will advance to the General Election in November.