In only two years, residents of Sunny Isles Beach have had three mayors and six elections – the majority of which were won by razor-thin margins.
At approximately 7:30 p.m. on Dec. 6, Larisa Svechin and Mayor Dana Goldman were tied in their pursuits to win the highly anticipated mayoral runoff. Three days later, once all the ballots were counted and the rejected ones certified, Svechin had secured the seat by just 20 votes.
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Dana Goldman and Larisa Svechin (L) previously served on the Sunny Isles Beach Commission together while George Scholl (top center) was mayor.
Svechin previously served as interim mayor in 2021 following George Scholl’s resignation, but her position was short-lived. In a special runoff election that served as a sort of precursor to last month’s nail-biting events, Goldman beat Svechin, assuming the year left in Scholl’s term. She had 29 votes to thank for her victory.
Now, the pendulum has swung in Svechin's corner yet again, but it comes at a price. The city that she has adopted is all but fractured.
Hostile Convening
The cracks came to light at the Dec. 15 meeting when commissioners were tasked with accepting the results of the election that had occurred the week prior. What is typically standard procedure for any municipality quickly turned into a series of public outbursts.
Greg Capra, a former candidate twice over for city commission, was at the podium for roughly 30 seconds before Goldman interrupted him and asked that he be removed. In the time that it took for officers to abide, Capra painted an image of the former mayor as a lying puppeteer who performs power plays in an attempt to fulfill personal vendettas against city employees and taxpayers.
He referred to a libel lawsuit filed Nov. 29 against the former mayor by Dezer Development, a real estate company that Goldman’s campaign accused of donating $750,000 to Svechin in exchange for radical upzoning. Litigation for that lawsuit is still pending.
Capra's longstanding rivalry with Goldman dates back to 2012, when she sued him for fraud. Her claims were dismissed with prejudice four years later, soon after which Capra led his first campaign for city commission with anti-Goldman rhetoric at its helm.
He lost his second bid in the January 2022 runoff by a mere 12 votes.
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Former city commission candidate Greg Capra was escorted out of a Dec. 15 meeting after making remarks against then Mayor Dana Goldman.
“It took years to expose you for those that supported you most,” Capra said at the December meeting. “Eventually, you showed your true self to them, and they shunned you.”
Members of the audience followed his forced exit with a loud chant: “Let him speak!”
Others tried to keep the peace, and Svechin herself followed by approaching the podium with a call for unity. She was met with hostility by Commissioner Fabiola Stuyvesant, who pressed the mayor-elect to explicitly condemn Capra’s actions, and by Goldman, who hesitated to let Svechin speak at all and later reminded her that Capra was her “top supporter, who did all her bidding.”
Still, the outcries continued. Audience members booed Felix Kizhner, who publicly supported Goldman’s reelection, as he walked up to the podium to ask commissioners to consider a physical recount.
Less than an hour later, another resident walked up and called for each commissioner to resign, threatening a total recall otherwise.
Every Vote Counts
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Dana Goldman was elected mayor of Sunny Isles Beach in a November 2021 special election by a margin of 29 votes; she lost her reelection bid by just 20 votes last month.
Svechin attributes the divisiveness to several factors. For starters, she and Goldman both have a long-standing history with the city and name recognition among voters. Both women had served as city commissioners, vice mayor and mayor prior to November’s race.
Then, there was the mayhem of a crowded election cycle. Residents typically have four years before they have to cast another ballot for mayor.
Lastly – and here’s the silver lining, according to Svechin – is that Sunny Isles Beach is home to a passionate voter base, one that is growing exponentially.
When Scholl won his first bid for mayor in 2014, 2,798 people had voted. During November’s general election last year, that number jumped to 5,675.
In those eight years, the population increased by approximately 2.8%, while the voter base more than doubled.
In small cities like Sunny Isles Beach, where the population barely exceeds 22,000 and the land is less than two square miles, each vote is keenly felt. That only becomes truer when each candidate has a large and dedicated following.
Svechin says many of Goldman’s former supporters switched sides in between elections, citing different reasons for the change of heart. That benefitted her cause, but more importantly, it showed people were paying attention.
Moving Forward Together
For better or for worse – it depends on who you ask – Svechin is the new mayor. A Jewish immigrant from the former USSR with a background in advertising, she took office Jan. 5 with one goal in mind: to bandage a divided city.
“One of my biggest initiatives is to help unify us and bring us together so that we can remember that we all have one common goal, and that’s to live in the best city in the best country in the world,” she said.
Like any other coastal community in the sprawling northeast corner of Miami-Dade County, Sunny Isles Beach has its growing pains. The COVID-19 pandemic brought an influx of new residents to the area from various parts of the country – a stark change from the trickle of eastern European migrants that the city had previously been well accustomed to.
As such, Svechin identifies her two main priorities to be pedestrian safety and responsible development. But she can’t achieve those alone.
Her initiative to unify the population begins with the charter review that’s due this year. That process happens every 10 years, beginning with the appointment of a Charter Review Commission in December.
Svechin encourages everyone to tune in and speak up.
“Getting people involved in that process and feeling like they can be part of that process I think is really critical to helping people heal and feel like this is their city too, regardless of who won,” the mayor said.
Svechin also plans to review the budget for efficiency and to represent the people’s interests moving forward, even if they differ from her own.
“For me, it’s not the person who wins,” she said. “[The seat] belongs to the people.”