PSL District 3 race: Affordable housing, growth management and job creation among key issues
PORT ST. LUCIE — The race for the City Council District 3 seat has attracted an incumbent seeking his first full term and a challenger who has twice run for the office unsuccessfully.
Anthony Bonna, vice president of sales at GlobalED Foundation and former St. Lucie County commissioner, is facing Fritz Masson Alexandre, a chiropractor assistant.
Alexandre, 59, lost to Bonna, 35, in the September 2021 special primary election for the seat.
District 3 mainly includes the southwest quadrant of the city, bordered by Gatlin Boulevard, Becker Road, Glades Cut Off Road and Florida's Turnpike.
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All registered voters in the city are eligible to vote for District 3.
The new council member will serve a four-year term and earn $54,471 annually.
Early voting is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 24 through Nov. 5 and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Nov. 6.
Bonna has $47,567 in campaign contributions as of Thursday, according to the Supervisor of Elections Office. His donors include the St. Lucie County Firefighters PAC, state Reps. John Snyder and Dana Trabulsy, Mayor Shannon Martin and Vice Mayor Jolien Caraballo.
Alexandre has no donors, but a $500 loan to himself, according to campaign finance reports.
Affordable housing, growth management and job creation are shaping up to be key issues in the nonpartisan race.
Here's where each candidate stands on those topics:
Affordable housing
A recent report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition shows that residents here must earn about $36.50 per hour— or 3.5 times the minimum wage — to afford rent.
The market for homebuyers also is expensive.
For instance, St. Lucie County's median single-family home sale price last year increased 24% and has continued to reach record highs this year — peaking at $399,000 in June.
To combat financial burdens associated with rising housing costs, Bonna, who sits on the city Affordable Housing Advisory Committee and the St. Lucie County Homelessness Task Force, said one of his top priorities if reelected would be to create workforce housing — which targets middle-income workers such as police officers, firefighters and teachers.
He suggested the city offer incentives to developers to build workforce housing.
Working with the Legislature to ensure the Sadowski fund — money local governments receive to help lower-income residents obtain and maintain affordable homeownership by funding emergency repairs, new construction and mortgage assistance — is entirely funded is another priority. Historically, that pot of money has been raided by lawmakers' for non-housing projects.
Both candidates said they would support using state or federal dollars to create rental assistance programs for those in need, similar to assistance the city offered during the pandemic with CARES and American Rescue Plan dollars.
Job creation
Despite the strides made in attracting large companies here, such as FedEx and Cheney Brothers — each required to pay at least 115% above St. Lucie County’s average wage, $49,504 annually, or $23.80 hourly to receive incentives — more than 60% of workers still travel outside St. Lucie County for their jobs, according to the Economic Development Council.
That's why creating jobs with livable wages is a priority for each candidate.
Alexandre believes the city has not been doing enough to create jobs. He suggested offering incentives such as temporary tax breaks not just to Fortune 500 companies, but also to small businesses.
For Bonna, creating workforce housing is a crucial step connected to job creation.
"We are attracting great employers here and we need to do what we can to ensure the employees of these companies have housing options in Port St. Lucie," he said.
Continuing to work alongside St. Lucie County Chamber of Commerce and the Small Business Development Center at Indian River State College is another way Bonna would assist local businesses.
Growth management
Port St. Lucie is the seventh-most populous city in the state and continues to see rapid growth both commercially and residentially.
In Bonna's eyes, managing growth is a balancing act.
"What we're responsible for is maintaining the infrastructure to to keep up with that growth, and that's the real challenge," he said.
For example, ensuring developers pay their impact fees to fund infrastructure projects, such as road repairs and construction, is one way elected officials can balance that growth, he said.
St. Lucie West Boulevard and Port St. Lucie Boulevard are examples of arterial roads that need a lot of work to reduce traffic congestion, he added.
Alexandre said he believes growth here needs to be better managed, but offered no solutions.
Olivia McKelvey is TCPalm's watchdog reporter for St. Lucie County. You can reach her at olivia.mckelvey@tcpalm.com, 772-521-4380 and on Twitter @olivia_mckelvey.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Nov. 8 general election: Bonna, Alexandre face off in PSL Dist. 3 race
