Just when you think politics in Pompano Beach can’t get more bizarre, along comes Delvin King.
For two years, this city has been in a state of perpetual gridlock, with three-member factions on the City Commission equally divided on nearly everything. The only way out is for voters to break the deadlock in the Nov. 3 election. That brings us to King — wherever he may be.
King, 33, principal of South Florida Technical College, a private school, is on the ballot as a candidate for the District 5 seat. His opponent says he should not be running and wants him off the ballot immediately.
Commissioner Darlene Smith has filed a lawsuit to remove King’s name. She says he violates two provisions of the city charter: He has not been a registered voter in District 5 for a least one year before the election.
According to King’s voting history in county records, he changed his voting address three times in the past year alone, most recently on March 16. But two months before that, the lawsuit says, King leased an apartment and applied for city water in a different voting district.
Smith also said King was convicted of petty theft 12 years ago, which the lawsuit says violates the charter’s “moral turpitude” clause.
King’s lawyer, Johnny McCray Jr., filed a motion to dismiss the moral argument and said the charter language appears aimed at commissioners while in office, not candidates. McCray also said voting addresses do not “conclusively” determine where someone lives, and said King is “confident” he will prevail.
The book on Delvin King
If run-ins with the law are grounds for disqualification in Pompano, King should never have run in the first place.
His name appears as a defendant 32 times in Broward court files, including minor traffic infractions, five eviction cases that became lawsuits, and five default judgments for unpaid debts.
The latest eviction suit, filed less than two weeks ago, is for $3,450 in unpaid rent at a Pompano apartment. The one before that, a year ago, was for not paying $5,000-a-month rent for a four-bedroom apartment in Deerfield Beach.
King is currently awaiting trial on a case involving three felony counts: first-degree grand theft, criminal misuse of personal ID information and dealing in stolen property. The court declared King indigent for costs in that case, so taxpayers may pay some legal expenses.
A court declared Delvin King indigent, finding he could not pay court costs.
The grand theft case has received lots of publicity — but not the kind likely to impress voters.
The news site TAPinto Pompano Beach, citing court documents, said King is accused of falsely claiming that his educational organizations were approved for state grant money, and that he made false statements to obtain expensive electronics from a vendor. King is accused of stealing $437,000 worth of property.
Fifteen times over two years, Broward Circuit Judge Ernest Kollra has granted requests for continuances of the case. Attorney McCray said that’s not unusual and is due to issues such as change in prosecutors, interviewing witnesses and pre-trial preparations.
The latest continuance was granted on Aug. 18, for 90 days, which moved the trial date to Nov. 18, two weeks after the election in which King is a candidate.
In another case, a private alternative school, Youth Under Construction Youth Center, was held liable for $61.5 million after a one-day trial in a case in which a child was violently assaulted by an armed security guard in 2021.
King was not held liable, but he’s listed in state records as the school’s president and registered agent and was identified in news accounts as its principal.
King is a frequent presence on social media, including on a Facebook page that stridently takes sides in Pompano Beach politics.
A Facebook post promoting Delvin King as honoring “the public trust.” The public record tells a very different story (Facebook)
He appears in an image that says: “Public office is a public trust” and describes him as “fighting public corruption.”
Fast action needed here
The case was assigned to Circuit Judge Hunter Davis, a former prosecutor appointed to the Broward bench by former Gov. Rick Scott.
The judge needs to act fast. Ballots must be printed by Sept. 11, Supervisor of Elections Joe Scott told the Editorial Board Tuesday, calling it “the absolute last day” to meet legal deadlines to get ballots to those Broward voters living overseas.
One of two scenarios is likely here.
The judge could agree with Smith and throw King off the ballot, or dismisses the lawsuit and King stays on the ballot. In that case, voters in District 5 would decide whether King is qualified or not.
A third possibility: The judge rules King ineligible but after ballots have been printed. In that case, the court would tell the elections office to notify all District 5 voters that votes for King would not count.
That would cause more controversy — but it would be more of the same in Pompano Beach.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.