Meet the candidates running for Delray Beach City Commission Seat One

Three people have stepped forward to run for Seat One on Delray Beach’s City Commission.

For this March 19 election, two other seats — Seat Three and Seat Five, or the mayor’s spot — are also open, and nine people are running, creating the potential for a significant shuffling of the commission.

Registered Delray Beach voters can vote in-person or return their vote-by-mail ballot on March 19, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot is March 7.

The candidates running for Seat One on the commission are James “Jim” Chard, a former city commissioner with a history working for financial institutions such as American Express and Citibank; Tennille DeCoste, who’s worked in human resources in several South Florida cities; and Tom Markert, an author who comes armed with experience working for large companies such as Office Depot.

Stay informed this election year. Sign up for our Power Lunch newsletter

The winner of this election will fill the seat currently held by City Commissioner Adam Frankel, who is ineligible to run again due to term limits.

Here’s what to know about the Seat One candidates.

Jim Chard

Chard, 79, said he has spent a solid chunk of his life studying cities, and his favorite is Delray Beach, which he moved to more than 20 years ago.

“I can’t think of a better place to go,” he said. “I have a great life here.”

Chard won a seat on the commission in 2017 but resigned to run for mayor in 2018, where he lost to current mayor Shelley Petrolia.

Chard’s city involvement includes being a member of the Site Plan Review and Appearance Board, chair of the Historic Preservation Board, vice chair of the City Comprehensive Plan Citizen Advisory Board, a Delray Beach representative for the Palm Beach County Transportation Planning Agency and serving on various city task forces.

Chard, who used to work for global financial institutions, said one of Delray Beach’s biggest challenges is K-12 education, which needs to be addressed by tackling systemic issues.

“Our schools are rated C and D,” he said. “Our young people get married and have kids and they go to Boca Raton, or they go to Wellington.”

The migration of millennial and generation Z-aged folks away from Delray Beach ties into Chard’s hope of retaining people to live and work in the city by promoting more economic development.

Many people who work in Delray Beach cannot afford to live there — and those who can afford to live in Delray Beach often work elsewhere in South Florida, he said.

Delray Beach’s building development has been managed well, though, Chard said, largely because of the tight zoning, density and height laws that he does not foresee changing.

One way to ensure the city does not “become a big glass monolith” is by instituting the proposed historic district designation on a portion of East Atlantic Avenue, he said.

If elected, Chard said he would probe into the use of more technology, which he believes Delray Beach already employs well, such as through the fire department’s use of drones and the city’s license plate recognition technology used to identify stolen cars.

Ultimately, Chard emphasized the importance of local elections, encouraging Delray Beach residents to vote because city government touches their lives more intimately than any other bureaucratic branch will.

Tennille DeCoste

DeCoste, 46, is a political newcomer, deciding to run for a commission seat after more than 20 years of working in human resource departments, often as a director, for municipalities across South Florida, including Miami-Dade County, Miramar, Palm Beach County, Boynton Beach and Delray Beach.

DeCoste said she moved with her children to Delray Beach in 2015. She got her own place in 2018 and stayed ever since, cultivating a love for the city.

“I believe the city saved my life,” she said. “I owe this city so much.”

DeCoste said her experience working in city and county governments is one of her greatest strengths as a candidate.

“I know what to look for,” she said. “I know what changes need to be made.”

This especially comes into play with the city’s budget and taxes, which DeCoste said she’d feel comfortable dealing with.

“The biggest issue is, everything is going up,” she said. “We need to plan as a city to make sure we’re prepared for that. The budget goes up. So we have to look into our budget to see what can we make cuts at that doesn’t hurt our residents, that doesn’t cut the service.”

Though not “anti-development,” DeCoste said preservation must also play a role, which can be achieved by investing in what the city already has.

She would make development-related decisions by factoring in what the city’s master plan, residents and business owners say, which is also her philosophy when it comes to the East Atlantic Avenue historic district designation, a proposal she isn’t completely certain on yet.

“It’s not a yes and it’s not a no, I’m in the middle,” she said.

To DeCoste, bringing more affordable housing options to the city is largely a matter of forming relationships with the people and institutions who possess the power to grant money to the city to fund those opportunities, such as county and state representatives.

DeCoste said she is not running for a seat because she wants to be a politician; rather, her choice to run is fueled by a passion to give back to Delray Beach.

“Residents need to know that I am the best pick. I have a duty to pay forward what Delray has done for me,” she said. “I don’t know if I would be here today if it wasn’t for Delray.”

Tom Markert

The third candidate is another political newcomer who has spent the past several years working as an executive at global companies.

Markert, 66, is currently the president of the nonprofit InfraGard. He also has authored two books about business.

Markert’s job with Office Depot brought him to Delray Beach about 15 years ago, and his decision to run was a result of his love for the Delray Beach community. He has served on the city’s Police Advisory Board, but finally has the time to “commit” to campaigning for a spot on the commission.

“I’m super psyched about it, and I would really would like to help Delray,” he said.

Markert said he brings an “entirely different skill set,” than the existing commissioners and candidates, who all “look the same.”

“I come out of being a big corporate CEO, I’ve got skills running big budgets far in excess of the $250 million budget that we have in Delray.”

Markert’s stints in corporate leadership will also help alleviate some of Delray Beach’s “nasty” politics.

“If I disagree with you, I’m going to disagree with you super respectfully, and I think disagreements are fine, and that’s going to happen in the political arena, but you got to do it with decorum,” he said.

Markert is a proponent of “sensible development,” he said, which the city has yet to achieve.

“We have a plan for the city, and for some reason, every time a developer comes before the commission, they’re asking for an exception to our plan,” he said. “We can’t have that in the corporate world. We build strategic plans, and they are long-range strategic plans that are built to get us to the destination that we want to be to in a few years. And we have those plans for Delray, but we don’t follow them.”

For Markert, sensible development includes a consideration of infrastructure, traffic and preserving the city’s charm, such as through implementing the proposed historic district on part of Atlantic Avenue, which he supports.

Markert said Delray Beach is on a good path toward creating affordable housing but the commission has the task of doing so in a way that preserves safety and security.

“This is going to be an issue that we have to stay on top of and be vigilant and just continue to plow forward but not make bad choices to get to the finish line quickly,” he said.

Fast-tracking affordable housing solutions may not be something Markert would want, but he does believe in an acceleration of the city’s new water treatment facility.

To voters, Markert primarily wants to convey he is a “consensus builder.”

“I want to bring some civility back to the Delray Beach commission,” he said.