Kenneth Cooper

Economy We need to create a public campaign for starters showing that we are open for business and willing to attract new business. We can do this by working in a collaborative effort with the Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, whose sole purpose is to attract professionals with higher-paying jobs to our city. Criminal Justice / Public Safety Body cameras on every police officer that cannot be turned off. Taxes / Budget Additionally, we need to keep our low tax rate to maintain the existing businesses and attract new businesses. I believe there are ways to eliminate government waste and improve efficiency within the City’s budget to ensure we can keep our taxes low. Environment / Energy Cooper proposes installing “water baskets” on our stormwater runoff drains to catch debris, preventing it from entering our waterways where it sinks to the bottom and decays. This is a simple low-cost measure to keep our water channels clean. Infrastructure / Transportation In order to avoid excessive interruptions of our daily life and benefit from overall cost savings, I would complete the water and sewer projects at the same time. These pipes are very close together under the ground and are both relatively the same age, which makes this a common-sense approach. Environment / Energy Ken Cooper proposes installing protein skimmers in the Fort Lauderdale waterways. Such skimmers would allow over 300 million gallons of saltwater to be treated per year. Environment / Energy Cooper proposes reintroducing mangroves and oysters back into the environment to clean our waterways naturally. Criminal Justice / Public Safety Implement the proper use of force rules and regulations and perpetually train our officers in those rules and regulations. I am not in favor of reducing their budget or de-funding the police. Criminal Justice / Public Safety Require new training of all officers in de-escalation techniques and mandate which methods are to be used. Government Reform The city campaign funds should be limited to 100,000.00 for Mayor and 50,000.00 for City Commissioner. Limiting campaign funds provides an equal and fair platform for citizens to run an election campaign in the city. Infrastructure / Transportation The City Commission has approved changes to the ULDR to make the code more development-friendly. Moreover, they have routinely approved projects as exceptions in excess of the already development-friendly code. These exceptions need to stop, and the newly approved revisions have to include a sunset clause in order to review the negative impact of the code changes.