Boca Raton Election: Mayor & City Council Races Tuesday

Boca Raton voters head to the polls Tuesday to elect a new Mayor and at least two new City Council members, with four offices on the ballot and two high-stakes referendums that could reshape the city’s future for decades.

The election comes at a pivotal moment for Palm Beach County’s second-most populous city, home to more than 104,000 residents. The dominant theme running through nearly every race is the same question: how much development is too much, and who pays the price when a city grows faster than its infrastructure?

At the top of the ticket, a three-way mayoral race pits City Council members Fran Nachlas and Andy Thomson against political newcomer Mike Liebelson. All three are competing to succeed Mayor Scott Singer, who stepped down from local politics in December after launching a congressional campaign.

Nachlas, a Republican surgical nurse and the city’s current Deputy Mayor, brings nearly three decades in health care along with deep roots in Boca Raton civic life. Her fundraising reflects her frontrunner standing. Through late February, she raised $236,000 through her campaign account and an additional $254,000 through her political committee, Fran for BocA. She has positioned herself as a pragmatic manager who supports carefully supervised growth and argues that lease revenues from new development could cushion the city if state-level property tax cuts reduce municipal funding.

Thomson, a Democrat who holds day jobs as a lawyer, electrical engineer and adjunct professor at Florida Atlantic University, was first elected to the Council in 2018 and currently serves as Vice Mayor. He has built a reputation as a fiscal hawk, pushing back on what he describes as unnecessary giveaways of public land. The development debate sits at the center of his campaign.

Because both Nachlas and Thomson are running for Mayor, their current Council seats, Seat A and Seat D respectively, are simultaneously on the ballot March 10.

The disagreement over Boca Raton’s development path is not merely a campaign talking point. Voters will decide two specific referendums Tuesday that carry enormous real-world consequences.

The first asks whether the city should issue up to $175 million in bonds to build and equip a new police headquarters and related public safety facilities. Supporters argue the city’s current infrastructure is outdated and inadequate for a growing population. Critics question whether bond financing is the right mechanism and worry about long-term debt obligations.

The second referendum is sharper and more contentious. It asks whether the city should approve a 99-year lease of 7.8 acres of city-owned land near the Brightline station to Terra Group-associated Boca Raton City Center LLC. The developer wants to build a mixed-use project combining residential units, retail, office space and a hotel. Supporters say the project would modernize the downtown corridor and generate sustained lease revenue. Opponents argue it amounts to surrendering public land for a near-century to a private developer, with traffic and overdevelopment concerns that outweigh any financial upside.

The arguments on both sides have real merit, and that tension has energized the race in ways that sleepy municipal elections rarely produce.

All four elected offices carry three-year terms with a limit of two consecutive terms. The Mayor and Council members serve at-large on a nonpartisan basis, though partisan affiliations have not been invisible in this campaign.

The city’s growth debate echoes broader pressures playing out across South Florida, where municipalities are scrambling to balance tax bases against resident quality of life. Brightline connectivity has made Boca Raton more attractive to developers, and that pressure is not going away after Tuesday regardless of who wins.

What makes this election worth watching is the directness of the choices. Voters are not being asked to evaluate vague platforms. They are being asked to sign off or reject specific projects with specific dollar figures and specific timeframes. That level of accountability is exactly what local democracy is supposed to provide.

Polls are open Tuesday. Results will determine not just who runs City Hall, but whether Boca Raton’s most contested land sits in public hands or in private ones for the next century.