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 marker stays.

The record · Sea Grape Drive

The paper trail, date by date.

Seventeen dates, from the first request in April 2025 to the day the Sea Grape signs came down in August 2026. Under each one, the document it came from, linked so you can read it yourself.

A lot of background is in here. Each date starts with the short version; tap Read more for the detail, and tap any document to open it.

The request and the Agenda Item Report April – May 2025

April 23, 2025 A commissioner asks for the sign • Commissioner DeNapoli files a Commissioner Agenda Item Request to co-designate Sea Grape Drive as President Donald J. Trump Drive. • He attaches a draft resolution. The signed request, April 23, 2025. Tap to open. Read more What a co-designation is A co-designation adds a second, honorary name to a street. The legal name stays, and addresses, deeds and mail do not change. In this Town it is done by a resolution of the Commission. The Town has no written policy for naming or co-designating streets. There is only Resolution 2023-59, which addresses naming Town-owned properties and facilities. Evidence: the request form, Exhibit 1 to the staff report (PDF, p. 4)

May 2025 Staff follow the normal process and write the report • Town staff prepares the Agenda Item Report to accompany the resolution, marked for New Business on May 13. • It recommends notifying every property owner on Sea Grape Drive if the Commission moves forward. • It takes no position on the sign itself. Page 1: Agenda Section, New Business. Tap to open. Read more New items typically go under New Business for discussion first, and come back at a later meeting under Resolutions for a vote. The report says the Town has no policy for naming streets and points to the Town’s policy for naming its own properties and facilities, which requires a supermajority vote. It notes that some towns require approval from the residents of the affected street. On the line where staff would say approve or deny, it reads “Provide staff direction.” What an Agenda Item Report is Every item on a Commission agenda arrives with one of these: a cover page written by Town staff that says who asked for it, what it is, what staff recommends, and what documents are attached. It is the one part of the packet not written by the person asking for the vote. Staff wrote one for this request for the May 13, 2025 agenda. Evidence: the staff report, item 13.d (PDF)

May 13, 2025 Residents lose the warning they used to get before a vote • Staff wrote the report for this meeting. The published agenda does not list the co-designation item. • DeNapoli objects to a commissioner’s item needing a second meeting before a vote. The Mayor agrees. • Vice Mayor Strauss warns that commissioners and the public could be blindsided. There is no motion and no vote. Read more During the meeting the Town Manager describes the process for commissioner-requested items: a commissioner files a form, the Commission agrees whether to move it forward, and it is placed on a later agenda for discussion. Per the minutes, “this process allows Staff to compile additional information if necessary.” As she begins to name one of DeNapoli’s items, his hand goes out and she stops. “If a Commissioner wishes to place an item on an agenda, it should be brought forward for a vote.” He did not believe proposals generated by elected officials should require consensus followed by a second meeting at which a vote is taken. Commissioner DeNapoli, May 13, 2025 minutes. On the Town’s video he gives his reasoning: it is “the way typical parliamentary procedure works” because “you do it in advance, it gets on the agenda, it’s up for public to view it before the meeting,” and you would never want to put commissioners “in a subordinate position to staff.” The Mayor says his intent is to preserve the independence of the Commission. Commissioners could be blindsided by issues that are not reflected in an agenda for review prior to the meeting… This would also ensure the public has an opportunity to consider the item as well, and to express any concerns or opinions. Vice Mayor Strauss, May 13, 2025 minutes, asking that items come back with backup information What ended that night A long-standing Town tradition ended. New items were heard at one meeting and voted on at a later one, and in between staff gathered the information. No written rule required that tradition, and none was broken when it stopped. The Town’s Meeting and Agenda Procedures say a commissioner’s item “will be placed under New Business,” but never say how long to wait before the vote. The provision in full, and where it lives. Evidence: clip, 2:38 · clip: what replaced it, 38 sec · May 13 minutes, pp. 4–7 (PDF) · May 13 agenda (PDF)

July 29, 2025 The Town Manager is fired, and the agenda is one of the stated reasons • At a special meeting called by the Mayor, the Commission fires Town Manager Connors without cause, 4–1. • One of the Mayor’s written reasons: her “attempts to limit the Commission’s ability to place items on agenda without our prior consensus.” July 29 minutes: the Mayor's reasons. Tap to open. Read more Motion: Malkoon. Second: Poulopoulos. She had been with the Town fourteen years. Evidence: July 29 minutes (PDF) · New Pelican, July 30, 2025

The sign vote September 2025

September 5, 2025 The sign returns. Nobody on Sea Grape Drive is told, and the report that recommended telling them is not in the packet. • The Town posts Resolution 2025-42 for the September 10 meeting, under Resolutions, not under New Business. • The May staff report is not in the packet, and no notice goes to the residents of Sea Grape Drive. • The item report says the corner was chosen “to coincide with the location of the Broward County Republican Party offices.” The item report, 18.e. Tap to open. Read more It is item 18.e, posted with the agenda on the Town’s usual five days’ notice. No rule requires a supermajority. Evidence: the item report and resolution (PDF)

September 10, 2025 It passes the first night residents can speak • More than 80 people sign up to speak. Of the residents who speak, 33 oppose and 4 support. • The Broward Republican Party chairman tells the Commission he had requested the item, because the party’s headquarters is at that corner. • It passes 3–2: DeNapoli, Malkoon and Poulopoulos yes; Strauss and Graziano no. The minutes: motion carried 3-2. Tap to open. Read more Of the non-residents who speak, 10 support and 9 oppose. Per the minutes, DeNapoli tells the Commission the request was made for that location “due to the proximity of the Broward County Republican Party headquarters to the subject location.” Evidence: Sept 10 minutes (PDF) · New Pelican, Sept 11, 2025, full text

September 13, 2025 Three days later, on stage at a party dinner • Three days after two of them told the room the sign was not partisan, the Broward Republican Party puts all three on stage at its Reagan Day dinner. • DeNapoli, September 10, per the minutes: the Resolution “does not represent a partisan act, but a gesture of fairness and respect for history.” Poulopoulos, the same night: “recognition of the president is not a partisan issue.” • The party’s slide shows the Sea Grape Drive sign with the party logo. Evidence: Sept 10 minutes, p. 10 (PDF) · the party’s event calendar

September 17, 2025 The Mayor says the opposition came from out of town • The Mayor writes to the Sun Sentinel that “many of the loudest voices of opposition came from outside our town.” • Of the 14 people who spoke in favor on September 10, 10 lived outside the Town. Read more His letter, headed “A mayor defends ’Donald J. Trump Drive’”, continues: “They do not represent the majority of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea residents.” On September 10, of the residents who spoke, 33 opposed and 4 supported. Evidence: Sept 10 minutes, public comments (PDF)

The petition, and the signs January – February 2026

January 9, 2026 Residents file a petition to take the name back off • Residents file a proposed charter amendment with the Town Clerk. • Its title: “Nonpartisan Public Place Naming: Repeal Sea Grape Drive Codesignation (Resolution No. 2025-42).” • If adopted, voters would decide before a public place is named for a person, and the Sea Grape co-designation would come off. The submission letter to the Town Clerk. Tap to open. Read more Patrick Ferguson and Michael T. Ferguson sign it as authorized representatives of No Politics in Paradise. It asks for legal form review under section 166.031, Florida Statutes, and asks the Clerk to confirm whether the petition is being referred to the Town Attorney. Evidence: Sun Sentinel, March 11, 2026, full text: “submitted to the city in January” · the article on sun-sentinel.com · Mar 24 minutes, the petition (PDF)

February 2, 2026 The signs go up • A crew installs the Sea Grape Drive signs. • The contractor’s two invoices, for fabricating and installing them, total $11,729.20. Evidence: both invoices, $11,729.20 (PDF)

Part two: the state road February – March 2026 Everything up to here happened on a Town street. What follows did not. The day after the Sea Grape signs were installed, the name President Donald J. Trump was added to our stretch of Commercial Boulevard, a state road the Town does not control, by an amendment to a Miami legislator’s bill in Tallahassee. No Town agenda item had mentioned it. Three times in Tallahassee, lawmakers described a Town decision that had not happened. Each statement is below, in red, with what the Town’s own records show underneath it.

February 3 – 4, 2026 The name moves to a road the petition cannot reach • The day after the signs go up, an amendment filed at 4:56 pm adds our stretch of Commercial Boulevard to a Miami legislator’s bill. • Commercial Boulevard is a state road. A Town charter petition cannot reach it. • The House subcommittee takes the amendment up the next afternoon. Our own state representative, Chip LaMarca, chairs that subcommittee. Two things are said there about our Town. What they were told · House subcommittee, February 4, 2026 “This language is brought to me by some local leaders… there is a road designation currently for Commercial Boulevard, that is Donald J. Trump Boulevard, already designated.” — Rep. Juan Carlos Porras, introducing the amendment What the record shows Commercial Boulevard carried no such designation. The Town’s September vote was on Sea Grape Drive, a Town street. The Commission had never taken up Commercial Boulevard. What they were told · The same subcommittee, minutes later “They’ve decided they would rather designate the state portion of the road on the east side of the coastal waterway that feeds into the town.” — Rep. Chip LaMarca, the chair, who represents Lauderdale-By-The-Sea What the record shows The Town had decided nothing. No Town agenda item had mentioned Commercial Boulevard, and the Commission had not voted on it. Read more House Bill 33 was filed the previous September and mentions nothing about Lauderdale-By-The-Sea. Evidence: clip, 32 sec · the amendment, filed 4:56 pm (PDF) · HB 33 bill history

February 25, 2026 The House is told the Town had already decided • Presenting the bill for the vote, its sponsor tells the House the designation simply puts into law a decision a local municipality had already made. • The House passes the bill 82–30. What they were told · House floor, February 25, 2026 “Codifying a decision that was made by a local municipality in that area.” — Rep. Juan Carlos Porras, presenting the bill for the vote What the record shows There was no such decision. The Town had voted on Sea Grape Drive, a Town street. It had never voted on Commercial Boulevard. Read more Rep. Bartleman of Broward tells the chamber that neither the residents nor the Commission have been able to vet it. Evidence: clip, 18 sec · clip: Rep. Bartleman, 38 sec · House Journal no. 22, the 82–30 vote at p. 485 (PDF)

March 4, 2026 The Senate is told there was a vote on December 9 • Closing on the bill, its Senate sponsor tells the chamber our Commission had already approved the designation, by a three to two vote on December 9. • The Senate passes the bill 27–10. It is now through both chambers, and our Commission has still never voted on it. What they were told · Florida Senate, March 4, 2026 “The Town of Lauderdale-by-the-Sea adopted a resolution approving this designation by a vote of three to two at their commission meeting on December 9th of 2025.” — Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez, closing on the bill What the record shows There was no such resolution. The only vote on December 9 was 4–0 to approve the minutes of earlier meetings. The Commission’s first vote on Commercial Boulevard came on March 10, 2026, six days after this one. Read more No Town agenda item or minutes from September 10 through February 24 mentions a Commercial Boulevard designation at all. The day before, DeNapoli had told the Sun Sentinel the approval “has to come through us at the local commission.” What “approving the minutes” is Approving minutes is how a commission adopts the written record of a meeting that already happened. It is a vote on whether the notes are accurate. It decides nothing new, and no item can be approved through it. On December 9 the Commission approved the minutes of earlier meetings, including September 10. The vote they described was not the vote that happened Our Commission did vote on a sign. On September 10, 2025 it voted 3–2 to put the name on Sea Grape Drive, a Town street. That was the only sign vote it had taken. It had never voted on Commercial Boulevard, the state road. Not on December 9, and not at any of the ten meetings from September 10 through February 24. Its first vote on Commercial Boulevard came on March 10, 2026, six days after the bill had passed both chambers. Three lawmakers told two chambers about a Commercial Boulevard decision that did not exist. Evidence: clip, 20 sec · Dec 9 agenda (PDF) · Dec 9 minutes (PDF) · Sun Sentinel, March 3, 2026

March 10, 2026 The vote that could have stopped the signs • Six days after the bill passed, the Town Commission votes 3–2 to support it. • Thirty-six residents speak; thirty-two are against. • Under state law the state signs could not go up without this vote. The Mayor tells the room they were happening regardless. Read more DeNapoli tells the room “there is no misinformation to the Legislature.” The Mayor incorrectly says the signs are “basically gonna happen… regardless of a yes or no tonight.” Asked to confirm, DeNapoli says the markers have to come before the Commission “as a requirement for approval.” The Mayor says “okay” and moves to the vote. What the state law requires Section 334.071(3), Florida Statutes: “Erection of markers shall be contingent on the appropriate city or county commission passing a resolution in support of the particular honorary designation.” The Legislature can put an honorary name into state law on its own. The signs cannot go up unless the Town Commission passes a resolution in support. The statute calls them markers. Evidence: clip, 33 sec · clip: no misinformation, 1:40 · s. 334.071(3), Florida Statutes · Mar 10 minutes (PDF)

March 15, 2026 Our state representative says who called him • Sun Sentinel editorial: “Let the voters approve Trump road marker.” • Our state representative tells the Editorial Board that DeNapoli called him about it, and that he directed him to the bill’s sponsor. Read more “I did have a phone call from Commissioner DiNapoli. 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.” Rep. Chip LaMarca to the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, March 15, 2026 Where the Commercial Boulevard language came from The Legislature did not add our stretch of Commercial Boulevard on its own. On the record, the committee chairman who is our own state representative says a Town commissioner called him about the Sea Grape sign and he directed that commissioner to the bill’s sponsor. The amendment followed. The request came from here, not from Tallahassee. Evidence: the editorial, full text · the editorial on sun-sentinel.com

After April – August 2026

April 9 – 14, 2026 The missing report finally surfaces • A public records request uncovers the May 2025 staff report, the one that never accompanied Commissioner DeNapoli’s agenda item. • A resident reads it into the record. DeNapoli describes the comments as “inaccurate and inappropriate.” Read more On April 14 a resident cites the report at the Commission meeting, asks why it never accompanied the resolution, and gives a copy to the Town Clerk for the record. Evidence: Apr 14 minutes, p. 2 (PDF) · Apr 28 minutes, pp. 2 and 13 (PDF)

June 25 – August 28, 2026 The Sea Grape signs come down. The state signs stay. • The Governor signs the bill on June 25. A crew takes the Sea Grape Drive signs down on August 28. • Up and down: $17,489. • The two state markers on Commercial Boulevard stay. The residents’ petition did not reach the ballot. Read more The bill takes effect July 1. The Town Manager’s estimate for the removal is $5,759.76. Evidence: both invoices, $11,729.20 (PDF) · Chapter 2026-183, Laws of Florida · Mar 24 minutes, the $11,729 read into the record (PDF)

Where this comes from: the May 13, 2025 staff report (Item 13.d), obtained by public records request; the Town Commission agendas and minutes of May 13, July 29, 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); and the No Politics in Paradise organizers' published account of the speaker and business counts. Every quote is verbatim from a document or a recording. Corrections: hello@letsprotectourparadise.org. We answer.