By Steve Kelley

If you don't know already, Ft. Lauderdale will have elections on February 11 for the primary and again on March 11 for the general election. We now have that wonderful opportunity to vote for elected officials, a mayor and 4 city commissioners, we think will best serve the city. Those we elect now will be making decisions for us, for good or ill, that will impact the city for years to come.

For the past 12 years, Jim Naugle has been our mayor and before that was a city commissioner for 6 years. It's easy to make the case that Naugle has been a passive and unimaginative mayor unable to advance initiatives for civic improvement or provide real leadership.

An especially pitiful example of Naugle's absence of leadership his been his lack of effort in reducing crime in the city. Voters must remember that Mayor Naugle sat quietly by for 12 long years as Ft. Lauderdale's crime rates soared until we ultimately became the second worst city for crime in the U.S. in 1996. It took Tim Smith's election to the City Commission in 1997 to finally get leadership and action and get the city's crime down; we currently rank about 45th in the country.

Naugle has also been curiously absent from our neighborhoods. We have about 60 neighborhood associations in Ft. Lauderdale; it is rare for Naugle to attend a neighborhood meeting, hear their concerns and help them with problems. When was the last time Naugle attended your neighborhood association meeting?

While Naugle publicly claims to be against development, his voting record for the giant towers downtown is exactly the opposite. In fact, he has voted for projects such as the River House (420 feet high), the Las Olas Grand (380 feet), the Watergarden (320 feet), Las Olas Place (290 feet), City Center (220 feet), Symphony House (211 feet) and at the beach, Gulf Coast Resort (290 feet), Castillo Grand (270 feet), Costa Dorado (240 feet), Ocean Dunes (180 feet), The Atlantic (170 feet), Le Club (170 feet), the Alhambra (150 feet) and even the giant Beach Place at 300 feet high.

During Naugle's 12 years as mayor, he has never had a substantial opponent run against him. In a way, he has been our unopposed mayor by default.

That is, until now, as Commissioner Tim Smith has chosen to run for mayor. The voters now have a real choice for mayor, one of whom exemplifies leadership and has a real vision for Ft. Lauderdale. There's a good reason that Smith's campaign slogan is "Leadership for a Change" as you'll see in this article.

In the late 70's, Smith moved to Fort Lauderdale, met his future his wife Cindy (together now for 24 years), and moved into Flagler Heights. At that time the neighborhood was ridden with drug dealers, prostitution, robbery and other criminal activity. Tim and Cindy, although busy with their landscaping business, were determined to raise a family, something they did not want to do in a neighborhood of turmoil. They decided to take civic action and attempted to start a neighborhood association to battle their street crime. The Smiths distributed 200 flyers to the entire neighborhood for a meeting at their home. Tim set up chairs, while Cindy made punch, and both waited for their neighbors to join them in a fight against the crime in their neighborhood. Only two elderly ladies showed up at the meeting, quite possibly for the free punch. Various other attempts to get the community involved in a neighborhood effort to improve conditions were futile. He was discouraged, but not beaten. Smith carried on, walking house-to-house, handing out fliers, and knocking on doors. Repeated calls to the City Commissioner went unreturned, and it became painfully obvious that the city had abandoned the neighborhood, and now so had its residents. With his calls for help to the city unanswered, and a failed attempt to form a civic association, a discouraged Smith decided to take action. Alone stowed away in the back of his own pickup-camper, scared to death, Smith barely took a breath as he hid, holding a video camera, taping exploits of the street trade to present to the city. Little did Smith realize that night he had turned the corner and was slowly becoming a community activist.

In 1989, the Smiths moved to Middle River Terrace, a small quiet neighborhood, and had a feeling they had found their home. They say home is where the heart is, that must be why it broke Smith's heart when he realized, the same dope peddlers they he had fought in Flagler Heights were setting up shop in Middle River Terrace. Once more Tim looked toward the community, as he knew it was strength in numbers that would prevent the criminals from overrunning their new home. In an effort to start another neighborhood association, Tim and Cindy passed out flyers, but this time set up only 25 chairs, hoping to fill more than the two chairs of their previous attempt. Everything was in place, and all they could do is wait. Like water through the floodgates, the residents of Middle River Terrace, poured out of their homes, and Smith knew the tide had turned. Over 100 people came to that first meeting all looking to Smith for the answers. Like the other residents, Smith had his own questions, and so it began. Residents like Marge Anderson and Roger McKee remember that first meeting, sitting on lawn chairs, sharing their stories, and meeting many of their neighbors for the first time.

Two things happened that day, after hours of sharing the residents came together as a family, and Tim emerged as the head of that family, and the leader they needed. It was that Friday evening that Smith started what is now known as the "Walk Against Crime." Armed with nothing more than a flashlight Smith knew, "They hide in the shadows." That night, with his new "family," Smith walked the streets of Middle River Terrace to take away those shadows and the cloak of darkness to expose the drug dealers.

At night, Smith continued to walk the streets "fighting crime," and by day Smith worked to develop a neighborhood beautification program. This included planting trees and petitioning for sidewalks and lights, all while trying to get the city involved in assisting them to make those much needed improvements and prevent crime. In 1995, the Middle River Terrace Neighborhood Association entered itself in the Neighborhoods U.S.A Awards for Best Neighborhood and won. They had been the most improved neighborhood in the entire country. Smith continued every Friday evening to chase away drug dealers and prostitutes, during the day he gathered residents to repaint walls, pick up trash, and mow vacant lots.

Despite Smith's efforts in Middle River Terrace, the city as a whole was in despair. In 1996, the city of Fort Lauderdale was ranked #2 in the U.S. as one of the most crime-ridden cities in America. With weak mayoral leadership, the city spiraled out of control and incredibly, was actually ranked ahead of Los Angeles, New York, Detroit, St. Louis, and other cities well known for their high crime rates. The mayor at that time, Jim Naugle, and other city commissioners had stood by and watched for more than a decade as the city's crime rate dramatically rose, taking few efforts to prevent it. After years of frustrating attempts to get the city to listen to the needs of their neighborhood, Tim Smith knew that success would depend on an acitve partnership between the city and its residents. When then-incumbent Commissioner Keno opted not to seek re-election in 1997, Tim knew what he had to do. Smith committed to run for the seat of City Commission, District II, to try to make a difference for himself and his community. During his campaign he raised only $12,000 while opponent and former Florida House Speaker Tom Gustafson raised more than $60,000 for the primary campaign funds. Though he was very much the underdog in this race he prevailed garnering nearly double the votes of his opponent in the run-off. It was obvious that he had the support of the community behind him.

Green to politics, but not to action, Smith immediately went to work as City Commissioner of District II. For Smith, the ideas came fast and furious, and he was prolific with plans on how to make District II a better place to live. When Smith took office early that year, he made a promise to the people in three important areas: he vowed to reduce crime, clean up Fort Lauderdale's waterways fight to preserve the beach.

They say that crime doesn't pay; yet we all paid the price when our troubled neighborhoods were overrun with criminal activity. Smith's first initiative as City Commissioner was "Operation Big Shoe" an aggressive plan to stomp out crime in troubled neighborhoods. At the time, drug dealers ruled almost every intersection of these so-called blighted neighborhoods. One corner that stood out above the rest was 13th Street and 4th Avenue, just blocks from the city's high school; this corner was host to an assortment of crack-cocaine dealers, pimps and prostitutes. Smith hit the streets, talking to residents; and hit the books, researching what procedures could be instituted in the district to aggressively target drug dealers and their clientele. He met with law enforcement officials and proposed a plan, literally putting his foot down in what is now known as "Operation Big Shoe." Coordinating with Fort Lauderdale's finest, Smith proposed "reverse stings" where officers posed as drug dealers, and "buy busts" where officers purchased drugs from dealers. Lane squeezes provided an opportunity for officers to spot check random vehicles traveling through the city. In fact, in its first night of implementation 12 cars were confiscated. Smith fought for street closures to curb activity by day, and additional lighting on the streets, to unveil activities at night. With Smith a landscaper by trade, it was no surprise that these improvements immediately changed the "proverbial landscape" of District II.

Smith continued to fight the good fight proposing a police action plan to last six months where statistics on activity could be analyzed and used to further develop focused courses of action based on the criminal activity. Law enforcement was impressed with Smith's labors; Chief Brasfield dubbed Smith the "Police Commissioner" (a name that still holds true today). With all these successes, came some set backs, and limited city resources to hold the criminals and process them in the neighborhood in a timely fashion became the effort's "Achilles Heel." Smith was on a roll and the city's crime rate was dropping at record rates. Knowing that a setback could put them at square one, Smith offered his own rental property as their in-neighborhood headquarters for processing the offenders they arrested each evening. Law enforcement used this residence as the site of their reverse stings, luring crack-heads, and dope-fiends to the home with the promise of drug sales. Once inside the addicts were arrested and processed on the spot. Smith's efforts with law enforcement did not go unnoticed, and there was an immediate 40 percent drop in crime in the neighborhoods of District II.

Motivated by the success of "Operation Big Shoe," Smith packed his bags to learn more about fighting crime. Visiting other cities, including Chicago, IL; Washington, D.C.; Charleston, SC; and Grand Rapids, MI. Smith was eager to learn how these cities in peril reduced their high crime rates. Smith's pursuit was far from trivial, as he sought to learn from their tactics and strategies to see where they might help Fort Lauderdale remove the cancer that had plagued the community for far too long. After visiting with these cities, and meeting with their officials, Smith returned to his weekly city commission meetings, this time equipped with powerful new effective crime-fighting techniques, strategies and resources. Smith's bag of tricks seemed almost endless. He pushed the City Commission to institute bike registration, revamp an outdated teen curfew, increase school bounties, and set-up an anonymous tip line. Bike registration was essential in helping reduce and prevent petty crime, as well as assisting in attacking the city's drug trafficking epidemic. Fort Lauderdale's bike theft rate was off the charts with an astronomical $3 million in stolen bikes over 10 years compared with $300,000 in bank robberies for the same period. Drug dealers used these stolen bikes, riding through neighborhoods, trafficking drugs. With the bike registration implemented, the police were able to stop bicycle riders unimpeded and ask for bike registrations. If a bike wasn't registered or if the bike was registered and deemed stolen the bikes could be confiscated. Now armed with "probable cause" the officers could search suspects for drugs, paraphernalia, and weapons carried on person. This one program greatly reduced crime and drug trafficking throughout the entire city. Prior to changing the teen curfew, officers were only permitted to return truant children and teens back to their homes; non-truant minors including suspended and expelled students were permitted to return free to the streets of Fort Lauderdale vandalizing and committing auto robberies during the daytime. Smith's revamped teen curfew took these criminals off the streets. School bounties proved instrumental in helping improve safety in the city's schools, encouraging students to report any suspicious activities relating to weapons, drugs and other dangers that were hidden in schools.

One of Smith's great accomplishments was the creation of the Nuisance Abatement Board. Smith's plan was to establish a Nuisance Abatement Board for the purposes of hearing and deciding cases relating to complaints of public nuisance. "Nuisances" are typically slumlord apartment buildings, convenience stores, motels and others that conduct or condone illegal activity and that are a blight on our neighborhoods and terrorize residents. Board members would possess the technical, professional, financial, business or administrative skills necessary to accomplish the work of the board. At every City Commission meeting, for an entire year, Smith stood up before the Commission to propose the implementation of the Nuisance Abatement Board and to say that he met with resistance would be an understatement. Mayor Naugle stated reasons of liability for his objection; Smith couldn't take no for an answer and in the end, the commissioners stood together to create the badly needed board.

This was a victory for the city and soon after the Nuisance Abatement Board took action and lots of it. With a great deal of catching up to do, the board members looked to make an example, and set the tone for this new era. Following Smith's lead, the Nuisance Abatement Board set its sights on the notorious "Green Apartments." The decrepit slums were better known to locals as the "Wild Wild West." That year, the apartments had over 700 visits from law enforcement. With Smith's newly created Nuisance Abatement Board and Fort Lauderdale's finest conducting an unrelenting attack on its criminal activity, the owner of the "Green Apartments" conceded to the city, selling the property to a new owner, who now manages it responsibly. Today, the Nuisance Abatement Board can claim credit for the clean-up of over 600 problem properties throughout the city. I know, I served on the Nuisance Abatement Board for 3 years and saw firsthand the power of this important board launched by Tim Smith.

As City Commissioner of District II, a large part of Smith's district are the barrier beaches. In 1997, conditions in Fort Lauderdale's 'Venice-like' waterways were deplorable and cluttered with derelict boats. When Smith took a hard look at the area, he found that the waterways and canals were so grossly polluted with raw sewage that swimming was labeled a danger as noted by signs adjacent to these waters. He proposed a requirement for live-aboard boats to connect their toilets to land-based sewer lines, but was surprisingly faced with opposition from Mayor Naugle and others on the city commission. Mayor Naugle discounted the importance of the situation, believing that the pollution could have come from a number of other sources. Smith knew that there was more afoul than just the polluted waterways. Despite the Mayor's resistance, Smith's proposal was passed and repeated tests of the waters over time clearly showed that great improvement had been made to cleaning these waters and improving the quality of life for residents living along the Intracoastal and our canals.

With the safety of the 'Venice of America's' waterways improving, Smith's concentration moved to the rampant over-development that plagued the city's beaches in the 1990's. Prior to Tim Smith taking office, The Palms, a condo building far too large and to close to the road, had been approved for construction. The Palms now tower over the beach and the county's tallest buildings sit on the fragile ecosystem of Fort Lauderdale's barrier beach.

Distraught that the regulations for development had become so ambiguous and lenient to allow such an atrocity to be built, Smith proposed a building moratorium that halted development on the beach for 6 months and gave the city valuable time to revise its building codes and zoning laws. Smith and the city commission made good use of the time to put into place sensible restrictions on the height, width and amount of shadow that could be cast on the beaches. This moratorium was a critical turning point for Fort Lauderdale Beach; from then on, beachgoers would not have to suffer under the shadows of the immense skyscrapers that have cloaked Hollywood and Hallandale Beaches for years.

In 2000, Tim Smith wrote a fictional piece of work, putting into words, his ideal dream for Fort Lauderdale. Over the past 3 years, Smith's "Vision 2011" has become less of a fictional work, and more of a road map leading to Fort Lauderdale's future. Part of Smith's vision for 2011 is to improve the beach traffic congestion and help residents get to and from their residences without having to fight the traffic of sightseers and cruisers on A1A. Smith embraced a citizens' proposal that would develop a beach by-pass that would add a northbound lane on A1A that would pass behind the Oasis Café, over Las Olas Blvd., and north on Birch Street running parallel to A1A, allowing residents to easily get around the traffic they routinely encounter today. His plan would include developing a trolley system for which the city has been approved for Federal funding, and additional parking for beach goers. Smith's vision includes The Palazzo, a 1,500 parking space, 6 level parking village with shopping, a grocery for residents, a bank, and a promenade for residents to gaze at the Intracoastal and new marina. A similar village is proposed for the north side of the beach to alleviate traffic congestion and boost the local economy. Three years after "Vision 2011" was written, fiction has become fact as the "Palazzo" has been approved, as has his plans for a northbound beach bypass. As we go to press, $2 million as been earmarked to implement Fort Lauderdale Beaches' new trolley system.

Smith's 'green thumb' is prominent in his presence on Broward County's Land Preservation Advisory Board. The Land Preservation Advisory Board advises the county commission on where the $400 million from our parks bond issue will be spent. With his presence on the board, he has been able to push for "Green Space Conservation" designations in Fort Lauderdale and has ensured that Ft. Lauderdale gets a 40 percent return on the city's investment into the bond. Thus far, Smith has gotten the city over $18 million worth of land as well as 85 acres from the "Green Spaces" program.

As City Commissioner for District II, Tim Smith has had the strength to strive for the best and nothing less for his 'extended family,' the residents of this great city. He strove to advance the standards of all neighborhoods, assuring that never again would the city forget its own people. Throughout his two terms on the city commission, Smith has not only talked the talk, he has walked the walk. Smith has raised the bar, bringing forth substantial improvements for Fort Lauderdale. The once stagnant neighborhoods of yesterday's Fort Lauderdale like Victoria Park are now the backbone of the city's growing economy.

As the race for Mayor approaches, we the residents have the power to choose our fate, our fortune, our future, and our destiny. What we as residents must decide is which candidate will deliver unto us the magnificence this city deserves and make Fort Lauderdale greatest city in Florida. In Tim Smith's own words, "Today is tomorrow, and the time is now for change."