More notable was the turnout. Twenty percent of Broward County s registered voters cast ballots, a percentage that was dragged down a couple of points by the low turnout of independents who are not registered as either Democrats or Republicans. This seems a low percentage until one considers that it is higher than has been experienced in recent elections. Cypress Bend pretty much mirrored the county s results with a 20 percent figure. The election produced one new city commissioner as District 3 elected Bob Shelley, and re-seated Kay McGinn and Herb Skolnick, the incumbents representing Districts 1 and 5, respectively.
All terms are for two years.
Shelley beat incumbent Rex Hardin by a comfortable margin, collecting 54 percent of the vote and carrying five of the district s seven precincts. Interest in this race was greater than in the last one when Hardin was elected to his first term, as 31 percent of the registered voters turned out compared to 26 percent two years ago. In campaigning, Shelley was very critical of the city s image and its leadership, although he offered little in the way of solutions other than a return to city-wide election, as opposed to district election, of city commissioners, a method abandoned many years ago and not likely to be resurrected any time in the foreseeable future. He insisted that the long-simmering Yardarm legal battle must be settled as soon as possible, but didn t say how. That legal battle, which has been in the courts for over 20 years, so far has defied all attempts at compromise between the city and a developer who claims that city action and inaction caused him to suffer significant financial losses, including loss of the property.