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February 2, 2026: the co-designation goes up. August 28: it comes down, and Sea Grape Drive is Sea Grape Drive again. On Commercial Boulevard, the state signs stay.
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The record · Sea Grape Drive
The signs. The decisions. The paper trail.
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If you wanted the sign
Please read this anyway. It is not about the name on it. It is about transparency, and about the process that put it there.
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Hi neighbor,
The Sea Grape Drive signs went up in February and came down in August. Two state signs now stand on Commercial Boulevard. Here is how it happened, and why it matters.
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Start here
How did we get here?
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How did we get a Trump sign on Sea Grape Drive?
Town Commissioner Richard DeNapoli asked for it in April 2025. It did not appear on a Commission agenda until September, before most of the Town’s seasonal residents return. On September 10, the Commission voted 3–2 to approve it, with DeNapoli, Mayor Edmund Malkoon and Commissioner Theo Poulopoulos voting yes.
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Did residents know it was coming?
The agenda went up five days before the vote. Nobody on Sea Grape Drive was ever given direct notice.
Back in May 2025, Town staff recommended telling every property owner on Sea Grape Drive if the sign moved forward. The write-up for the September vote came from Commissioner DeNapoli, and it said nothing about telling anyone on Sea Grape Drive.
And instead of the usual discussion first and vote later, it went straight to a vote.
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How did residents feel about it?
Of the residents who spoke that night, 33 of 37 were against it. But they passed it anyway.
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So what did residents do?
In January, residents filed a proposed charter amendment so that voters, not the Commission, would decide before a public place is named for a person. It did not make the ballot.
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And then what happened?
Our state representative, Chip LaMarca, told the Sun Sentinel that Commissioner DeNapoli called him: “He asked what they could do about it… Apparently there has been a hubbub about the Sea Grape renaming, and they wanted to do this in case they take that down or something.” LaMarca says he sent him to Representative Juan Carlos Porras of Miami, the bill’s sponsor.
On February 3, 2026, Porras added Trump’s name to our part of Commercial Boulevard in a state bill. Commercial Boulevard is a state road, which a Town referendum cannot change.
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Why would the state name a street in our town?
Porras told other lawmakers the language is “brought to me by some local leaders in the Broward County area.”
Then lawmakers told the Legislature it had already been decided:
• Porras, February 4: Commercial Boulevard was “already designated.”
• LaMarca, February 4: “They’ve decided they would rather designate the state portion of the road.”
• Porras, February 25: the bill was “codifying a decision that was made by a local municipality.”
• Senator Ana Maria Rodriguez, March 4: the Town “adopted a resolution approving this designation” on December 9.
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Was that true?
No. Our Commission had never voted on, or even discussed at any meeting, putting Trump signs on Commercial Boulevard. The bill passed both chambers of the State Legislature anyway, and Governor Ron DeSantis signed it in June.
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Do we know who told them that?
Nobody has said so on the record. The only link on the record is the phone call LaMarca described.
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Did our Commission ever vote on the Commercial Boulevard signs?
Not until six days after the bill had already passed both chambers of the State Legislature. The vote came on March 10, 2026, and it passed 3–2 with the same three yes votes: DeNapoli, Malkoon and Poulopoulos.
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Did they have to vote yes?
No. Under state law the state could not put the signs up without a local resolution of support. Three commissioners voted to give it.
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What did residents say at that meeting?
Thirty-six residents spoke and thirty-two were against. It passed anyway.
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If we elect a new majority in November, can the signs come down?
The Sea Grape name is already off. The Commercial Boulevard signs are harder: state law makes the Town’s support a condition of putting them up, not of keeping them up. A new Commission could withdraw that support and ask the state to remove them, but the state would not have to, and taking the name out of the law would take the State Legislature. Which is why the question on November 3 is not the sign. It is who decides next time.
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Why has this become such a controversial Town issue?
Because our Town charter makes every seat on the Commission nonpartisan. Candidates run without party labels, and once elected, the job is Town business, not party business. That is why residents were upset when, three days after the vote, Mayor Malkoon, Commissioner Poulopoulos and Commissioner DeNapoli were recognized for it on stage at the Broward Republican Party’s Reagan Day dinner.
September 13, 2025, the Broward Republican Party’s Reagan Day dinner. Top: the party’s slide, with its logo. Bottom: Mayor Malkoon, Commissioner Poulopoulos and Commissioner DeNapoli, the three yes votes, on stage beneath it. Two photos from the event.
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Isn’t doing something like that obviously political?
Three days earlier, at the Commission meeting, Commissioners DeNapoli and Poulopoulos had told residents the sign was not partisan. Everyone is entitled to their personal political beliefs. Those beliefs should be kept separate from Town business.
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First the Sea Grape sign, then the Commercial Boulevard signs. Is there more to the story?
Yes, much more. We put it all in a timeline, from the first request in April 2025 to the day the Sea Grape signs came down this August, with the document behind every date. The link is below.
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A heads up: the timeline includes a lot of background material, but it is very interesting to see what has been going on behind the scenes.
Read the paper trail
Seventeen dates, April 2025 to August 2026, with the document behind each one.
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Why all of this matters
This is bigger than a street name.
The signs on Sea Grape Drive came down in August. The state signs on Commercial Boulevard are still up. The bigger question is the one they leave behind. Nobody on the street was told. The vote came the first night it was on an agenda. Tallahassee was told about a Town decision that never happened. If a sign could be done this way, what else could be done without residents knowing until it is finished? Who gets told? Who gets heard? Who speaks for this town in Tallahassee? And what happens when decisions about this town are made without the people who live here being any part of them? It is about transparency, accountability, and the safeguards that protect every resident, whoever you vote for in every other election. As you vote this November, think about the process. Think about the paper trail. Think about who is making the decisions, and how they are making them.
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Two commissioners stood up for residents.
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VOTED AGAINST THE SIGNS — Vice Mayor Randy Strauss, both times. He's running for Mayor. We recommend him. |
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VOTED AGAINST THE SIGNS — Commissioner John Graziano, both times. |
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November 3 · Mayor, Seat 1, Seat 2
Vote for these three. Town first.
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Randy Strauss
For Mayor
Vice Mayor. Voted no on the sign, no on the state road, and no on putting the eight amendments on the ballot.
Committed to putting residents first.
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Howard Goldberg
Seat 1 · District 1
Chamber of Commerce chairman, and a longtime voice for the businesses on Commercial Boulevard.
Committed to putting residents first.
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Patrick Ferguson
Seat 2 · District 2
Attorney. Helped neighbors draft the charter petition that would let residents vote before a street is co-designated.
Committed to putting residents first.
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NO |
on all 8 charter amendments
The people asking you to rewrite your charter are the same three votes behind everything above. Vote no on every one and the charter stays as it is. The ordinance and roll call (PDF). |
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Election Day
Tuesday, November 3
Vote by mail, early, or on Election Day. Mail ballots and early voting times are at browardvotes.gov.
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Forward this to the neighbor who told you the sign was "no big deal." It was a big enough deal to cost $17,489 (the Town’s own invoices and removal estimate) and a year of the town's attention, and to end with the Florida Legislature being told we voted for something we never discussed.
Your neighbors at Let's Protect Our Paradise
Where this comes from: the May 2025 draft staff report (Item 13.d), obtained by public records request; the Town Commission agendas and minutes of May 13, Sept 10 and Dec 9, 2025 and March 10, March 24, April 14 and April 28, 2026, all on the Town's meeting portal; Florida CS/HB 33 (2026), Chapter 2026-183, its Feb 3 amendment and House staff analysis, and the official House and Senate video; the Town Manager's written removal estimate; other Town emails and texts obtained by records request (email us and we'll share them); the Sun Sentinel editorial of March 15, 2026; and section 334.071(3), Florida Statutes. Speaker counts are from the No Politics in Paradise organizers' published account. Every quote here and in the timeline is verbatim from a document or a recording. The full timeline, with links, is at letsprotectourparadise.org/timeline.
Why you're getting this: you signed up at letsprotectourparadise.org, a neighbor passed your email along, or your address is in Florida's public voter-registration file. If it's not for you, the unsubscribe link at the bottom works with one click. No hard feelings.
Questions, corrections, or you think we've got something wrong: hello@letsprotectourparadise.org. We answer.
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