Every year, the Realtor Association of Greater Ft. Lauderdale holds an annual “Meet Your Mayor” breakfast. It is always held at a local hotel and thousands of Broward County Realtors and their guests are invited to attend.

Broward County’s Vice Mayor Stacy Ritter will appear, and 24 cities have confirmed the participation of their Mayor, Vice Mayor or a Commissioner. The open style of the event enables attendees to interact directly with the elected officials on any issues of concern.

Well, of these 24 Broward County cities, guess which one is NOT being represented? You guessed it…Our beloved Deerfield Beach!

I sent a message to Mr. Mahaney, our City Manager, expressing my outrage that no one is attending. While I realize that Mayor Capellini is on vacation and out of the country, that is no excuse for someone not attending in his stead. This is an annual event, invitations were sent out, and ignorance of this breakfast is no excuse either.

It will be interesting to see if one of our commissioners draws the shortest straw and ends up showing up this Friday.

Bonnie Beckman, CRS

Realtor

Qualified drivers can prevent accidents

It is becoming of increasing concern when one sees and hears of the increase in ghastly accidents involving “top heavy” cranes at construction sites and slow-moving, cumbersome garbage trucks.

In this computer-generated age, where local and world news are but a mouse click away, I realize there are more reports on small and large planes accidents as well as vehicles, large and small, even global warming and the wanton destruction of parts of the environment and in oceans.

However, local news of garbage truck accidents could, perhaps, be prevented if qualified, healthy drivers were operating them. Surely, it would benefit everyone to increase the salaries of these essential employees rather than to pay thousands, even millions of dollars in compensation for loss of life and damages.

Eugenia Nascimento

Lighthouse Point