Now comes the hard part for Peter Bober.
In upsetting Mara Giulianti in the race for Hollywood mayor, Bober beat one of Broward’s most controversial, well-known, and well-financed public officials. It was a well-earned victory, and he and his supporters are right to savor it.
Now, the 35-year-old Bober, who has been a commissioner since 2000, has to repair a city fractured by recent controversies – commissioner Keith Wasserstrom convicted of official misconduct, secrecy over a variety of big-ticket development projects, a wide-ranging police scandal, and Giulianti’s own divisiveness.
Bober, a longtime Giulianti critic, ran as the anti-Mara. Now, he has to do more than just criticize the establishment. He has to show that his victory wasn’t merely a case of the voters saying they had too much of Giulianti.
Bober must show he has a progressive vision for the city, and he must prove persuasive enough to put that vision into place. Being a lone wolf on the commission won’t cut it any longer. He needs to build consensus.
During the campaign, Bober said his top priorities were keeping a closer tab on incentives to developers, and ethics reform. He’ll get his chance to show that those priorities are more than just campaign rhetoric. He talked about the need to stop wasteful spending. He’ll get the chance to be a leader there, too.
And he also talked about the need to build public trust, which is certainly critical in a city like Hollywood that has been on the front pages for the wrong reasons way too often.
The city has shown progress in recent years, particularly in downtown redevelopment and the beach areas. But other neighborhoods complain they were overlooked, and Bober must, with the assistance of three new faces on the commission, develop a strategy to address that neglect. Hopefully, Bober will be more transparent than the secretive Giulianti. And hopefully he’ll encourage the points of view of residents and other commissioners.
For the first time in 22 years, there will be no Mara Giulianti in Hollywood government. It is indeed a new day in the city.
And for Bober, the work has just begun.
BOTTOM LINE: Bober needs to show vision for the city.
