'It's time': Maggie Zeidman will not seek a fifth term on Palm Beach Town Council
Calling it an honor to serve the town and its residents for the past eight years, Maggie Zeidman announced Friday she would not seek a fifth term on the Town Council.
Zeidman, 70, told the Daily News she will vacate her Group 3 seat when her term comes to an end in the spring. She has spent the past four years as council president. Municipal elections are scheduled for March 19.
"It's time," Zeidman told the Daily News on Friday. "It's been eight years, and four years as president."
A longtime Palm Beach resident who maintains a condominium in the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston, Zeidman said she looks forward to spending more time with her family.
She and her husband, Mark, a retired financial executive, have two children and six grandchildren who live in the Boston area.
"I'm not leaving town," she said. "We're still going to be here. But this allows me more of an opportunity to get up (to Boston) and stay there rather than always needing to get back. All these eight years, it's been the schedule of the town that has come first for me. Whatever it was, whether it was meetings, whether it was the Citizens' Association, that came first. Now this will be a shift. Family will now come first."
Zeidman joined the council in March 2016 after being elected without opposition to the seat previously held by Penny Townsend, and she was re-elected unopposed in 2018, 2020 and 2022. For the past four years she has served as council president. In that role, she has presided over council meetings, determined the agendas, and named council members to the various council committees.
Before moving to Florida, Zeidman was the director of nursing at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.
She said she always considered that experience as the best in her professional life, but her work with the Town Council has been equally fulfilling.
"This is right up there with it," she said. "This has been such an honor for me to serve the residents of our town. I have appreciated working with our mayor and my colleagues on the desk. I always used to think it was what I did at the hospital. This is right up there."
In addition to her duties with the Town Council, Zeidman also is vice chairwoman of the Palm Beach Fellowship of Christians & Jews and a member of the Palm Beach Civic Association’s health committee.
She has lived in Midtown for 26 years.
Bobbie Lindsay, a long-time colleague of Zeidman's, said her presence on the council will be missed.
"I believe Maggie embodies the attributes we all desire in our town leaders: intellect, integrity, a superb listener and a strong advocate for preserving the quality of life Palm Beachers have enjoyed for so long," Lindsay told the Daily News.
"Thank you, Maggie. You will be sorely missed on the dais. I’m also grateful for the lasting friendship that we share from working together these past seven years."
Jodie Wagner is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at jwagner@pbdailynews.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Maggie Zeidman will not seek a fifth term on Palm Beach Town Council
