Surfside, Florida, votes out the mayor after condo collapse

By TERRY SPENCER
Associated Press

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The mayor has lost his job in a small South Florida town where 98 people died in the collapse of an oceanfront condominium last summer. Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett came in third in Tuesday’s vote. Business owner Shlomo Danzinger won with 499 votes, followed by Vice Mayor Tina Paul with 476 and Burkett with 466. Surfside’s oceanfront condos draw an outsized number of international residents so many in the town of nearly 6,000 can’t vote. Danzinger says he thinks many residents were tired of the constant bickering in the wake of the condo collapse. He says just staying out of the newspapers will be an accomplishment.