{"id":256280,"date":"2026-05-03T05:56:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T05:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/256280\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T05:56:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T05:56:24","slug":"fort-lauderdale-commissioner-john-herbst-resigning-his-district-1-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/256280\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Lauderdale Commissioner John Herbst resigning his District 1 seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Commissioner John Herbst, a certified public accountant who has brought a fiscally conservative voice to the dais since winning office in 2022, is resigning from the Fort Lauderdale City Commission two years into his four-year term.<\/p>\n

His resignation will take effect Nov. 2.<\/p>\n

Herbst notified the city clerk\u2019s office by email Friday at 8 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease accept this email as formal notice of my resignation from my position as City Commissioner for District 1, City of Fort Lauderdale, effective 11:59 pm November 2, 2026,\u201d Herbst wrote. \u201cIn addition, I am withdrawing my candidacy for re-election for my seat in 2028.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herbst could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.<\/p>\n

Before joining the commission, Herbst served 16 years as Fort Lauderdale\u2019s city auditor.<\/p>\n

That role came to an end when three of his commission bosses \u2014 Mayor Dean Trantalis, Commissioner Steve Glassman and Commissioner Ben Sorensen \u2014 fired him<\/a> in a late-night meeting in February 2022.<\/p>\n

That night, the mayor accused Herbst of overstepping his authority and conducting a \u201csecret investigation\u201d into allegations then-Police Chief Larry Scirotto was officiating college basketball games on city time. Herbst defended his right to investigate claims of fraud by any city employee without permission from the commission.<\/p>\n

Within weeks, Herbst was running for office<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In November, he won<\/a> by a landslide.<\/p>\n

At the time, fans of Herbst predicted he\u2019d be a force to be reckoned with, bringing a piercing scrutiny<\/a> as a fiscal watchdog and years of institutional knowledge from his 16 years as the city auditor.<\/p>\n

Critics objected to his sometimes blunt, no-nonsense style.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou better have a tough skin if you\u2019re going to get into government,\u201d Herbst told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in an interview soon after he took office. \u201cWhen people are saying I\u2019m being forceful, no, I\u2019m being direct.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time, Herbst referred to a mantra he repeated often on the campaign trail: Experience matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me a formidable person up on the dais,\u201d he said. \u201cI can\u2019t be bamboozled. I can\u2019t be bullied. I\u2019m going to address the issues in a civil manner, but I\u2019m also going to be forceful in presenting my perspective. If there is one thing they should have figured out Tuesday night is I am not going to be cowed.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Friday, some were stunned by news of Herbst\u2019s resignation \u2014 including the mayor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis definitely came from out of left field,\u201d Trantalis told the Sun Sentinel. \u201cFrom what I understand, this choice was based on personal reasons. Being in public office takes a lot away from your personal life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Herbst is not leaving office until November, the mayor noted.<\/p>\n

Fort Lauderdale will hold a special election on Nov. 2 to replace Herbst and fill the District 1 seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a solid working group on the commission,\u201d Trantalis said. \u201cThe real question now is who will want to run to serve the balance of the term.\u201d<\/p>\n

Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com<\/a> or on Twitter @Susannah_Bryan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Commissioner John Herbst, a certified public accountant who has brought a fiscally conservative voice to the dais since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[111291,33625,13776,249,251,250,62396],"class_list":["post-256280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-certified-public-accountant","tag-city-auditor","tag-dean-trantalis","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-john-herbst"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}