As the City of Fort Lauderdale suffered through its seventh massive sewer line break, Tripp Scott, a law firm which lobbies in front of State and local governments, posted a sewer discussion with Mayor Dean Trantalis on its YouTube channel. After giving an update on the Rio Vista, Victoria Park and Coral Ridge sewer breaks, Trantalis revealed several factors polluting Fort Lauderdale waterways. Amazingly, Trantalis never mentioned the 126 million gallons of raw sewage the City pumped into the canals last December.

According to Trantalis, the cause of Fort Lauderdale’s polluted waterways are fertilizer run off, dog poop and lazy boaters. Trantalis said, “whether it’s liveaboards or lazy people who come in from a day’s tour out on the water, instead of using the discharge stations…they just dump in the water.”

If these boaters are truly responsible for making our waterways dangerous, one might think Dean Trantalis would be happy to rid the City of this filthy scourge.

Nope.

In January 2019, Dean Trantalis’ campaign collected $10,000 from ten marinas located in California, Georgia, Maryland, Texas and Virginia. The Oak Bottom Marina website touts its large houseboat and slip rental business in Shasta, California. But houseboats are home to liveaboards, right Mayor Trantalis?

Why are ten out of state marinas giving maximum campaign contributions to Mayor Dean Trantalis?

The ten marinas are owned by Suntex Marinas of Dallas, Texas. Suntex Marinas owns and operates the Bahia Mar Marina on Fort Lauderdale beach.

In December 2017, Suntex Marinas won the bid the redevelop the Las Olas Marina for the City of Fort Lauderdale. Of course, this means more boats, right Dean?

Will Suntex Marinas build more discharge stations to capture these lazy boater “dumps.” Who will foot the bill?

Fort Lauderdale residents deserve answers, right Dean?