RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — Like a district court judge implied at a previous hearing, five different candidates for Riviera Beach city government were removed from the ballot.
The decision removes all candidates for the city’s mayoral election and leaves one candidate on the ballot for District 5, removing Douglas Lawson from the seat.
Those five candidates paid to register their campaign with a debit card rather than a check from a campaign account, which is required by Florida law.
They include Kendrick M. Wyly, Kendra D. Wester, Joseph Bedford, Sr., Douglas Lawson, and Madelene Irving-Mills.
The city is working to appeal the decision after a vote from two city council members on Friday night. During the meeting, city attorney Dawn Wynn said she knew candidates couldn’t pay with a debit card. Wynn said she informed acting city clerk Debrah Hall, who ignored her legal advice.
“When I first heard about the debit card situation Mrs. Hall and I had a conversation and I told her what my opinion of the law related to the statue and the Dr. Botel and Spirits case,” Wynn said. “She said I disagreed and that’s fine because she’s the supervisor of elections for municipal elections. That’s not my job to tell her what to do.“
Although it’s unclear the reason the city clerk ignored legal advice, WPTV’s Ethan Stein spoke with three candidates who said they met with a different woman along with city clerk Debrah Hall while registering for the ballot.
The woman, whose presence is first being reported after the judge’s decision, identified herself as helping the clerk perform election related duties.
Cedrick Thomas, who is running for election in District 3, said the city clerk introduced him to a consultant identifying herself as a former city clerk. He said she explained her role was to ensure the election process ran smoothly after past mistakes.
“The consultants role what I was told was to make sure that you know this goes smoothly and that everything was conducted properly because they’ve had some hiccups in the past,” Thomas said. “They wanted to make sure the there was an extra person there to just make sure that everything went well.”
He said the woman told him he could register for the ballot with a debit card. But, Thomas said he knew this information was incorrect due to his past experience in politics and team he hired to help him get on the ballot.
“I knew that’s not how I interpret the statute,” he said. “…It was news to me [paying with a debit card]. I have done it [register] before so laws could change, but I wasn’t comfortable doing that.”
Due to his decision, Cedrick Thomas will remain on the ballot against Council Member Shirley Lanier, who also told WPTV’s Ethan Stein the woman sat in her meeting to register for the ballot. She said she was told the woman was a volunteer, but she didn’t remember if she said you could pay with a debit card or not.
WPTV is not identifying the woman because we weren’t able to successfully contact her for comment.
Council Member Tradick McCoy said the woman also sat in his meeting to register for the ballot. He said she didn’t mention anything about a debit card, but he was told city administration determined her presence as a consultant was required.
WPTV reached out to city administration late Tuesday night and didn’t hear back by publication.
