I have lived my entire life, other than my college years, in Deerfield Beach. My wife of 41 years and all three of our children and nine grandchildren also live here in homes on the same street. Our neighbor living across the street for nearly 20 years is City Commission candidate Joe Miller, his wife Carol and their adopted daughter Jasmin. Their two grown sons, John and Jim, also grew up on our street and are both now out of college, married, and own their own homes in The Cove section of Deerfield Beach. These young men now run the very successful family business: Miller Pest Control.
In the last few years, as his sons took over the day to day responsibilities of managing the family business, Joe started getting more involved in civic activities, professional organizations and charity work. He had already been State President of his own professional association: Certified Pest Control Operators of Florida. So he became more active in the two main charity service clubs in Deerfield Beach: Kiwanis and the Rotary Club, where he was elected president.
Joe and I were chatting in our front yards a few months ago concerning the rundown appearance of parts of our neighborhood along A1A and a rumored prison release facility being located in one of the motels only two blocks from our homes. Additionally, he thought The Cove Shopping Center needed improvements and more parking capacity and something needed to be done to avoid the traffic jams which occur every weekend on the beach and on Hillsboro Boulevard. The subject then turned to our concerns about local tax rates on our homes and businesses, which could prevent our children or grandchildren from being able to afford to live here.
A few days later, Joe told me he was seriously thinking of running for the Deerfield Beach City Commission so he could do something positive about these problems which have lingered for years. I warned him that, in my opinion, the City is about to run into some serious financial problems as certain fire union pension contracts are going to require the City and its citizens to find some additional $30 to $40 million of additional tax dollars in the not too distant future. Joe assured me that he was used to dealing with employees and cutting all kinds of expenses when necessary during hard times.
As regards “saving our beach,” Joe is as committed as his opponent is to accomplishing that “apple pie” - type goal. The difference is that unlike his opponent, Joe doesn’t need an out-of-town lawyer as his surrogate to represent him at political events. This same out-of-town lawyer, incidentally, actually sued our city last year on behalf of a private party trying to confiscate one of Deerfield’s city parks on the beachside Intracoastal waterway through some outrageous legal trickery. The incumbent commissioner from District 1 did nothing as far as I know to stop her lawyer from doing this. We citizens on the beach, including Joe Miller, had to get a petition going and actually join the lawsuit with the City in order to save our park. We eventually won and defeated her lawyer, but at great expense to the City, you the tax payers, and some of us private citizens wanting to preserve our park space. So if you really want to save our beach and also our parks, better get involved to help Joe Miller get elected in District 1.
