The Hawthorne community packed City Hall on Tuesday to witness the swearing ins of three commissioners and to send off current Commissioner Tommie Howard and Mayor Jacquelyn Randall.
Gen Z candidates swept the June 9 election, bringing a dose of young blood for first terms.
Jonathan Franklin, 28, defeated incumbent Howard with 62% of votes for Seat 1, and Ronald J. Cobb II, 24, won Randall’s Seat 3 after securing 75% of the votes over challenger Silvia Ardley.
Seat 5 was also up for election, but sitting Commissioner Raymond Cue ran unopposed for another term.
As Howard stepped down from the dais, he thanked the community for allowing him to serve for the past 15 years.
Randall’s departure from the dais was anticipated as she campaigns for the Florida House District 21 seat, potentially replacing current state Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson in August.
Before stepping down, she gave a few remarks and opened gifts from Lakeside Baptist Church pastor Sammy Nelson, which included a bag of Lay’s potato chips because she’s “all that and a bag of chips.”
“I don’t leave shoes to fill; I leave a shovel for the next candidate, the next man, the next woman up to pick up and keep the work going forward,” Randall said. “So, blessings to the two candidates that are coming on tonight. Blessings to my colleagues that have been by my side for the last, almost seven years. Thank you to all the staff. Thank you, community.”
The new commissioners were sworn in with friends and family members gathered around before commission veteran Cue led Franklin and Cobb to their new seats.
“[I’m] a little emotional,” Franklin said. “I’d like to just thank the citizens of Hawthorne for the opportunity to serve you during my newly established tenure as your city commissioner.”
Cobb also thanked the citizens and said he enjoyed talking to people during the campaign about changes they wanted to see in the community.
“I hope that I make you proud of doing that and working for you at this level,” he said.
The commission’s first vote was a unanimous approval to make Commission Randy Martin the mayor and Commissioner Patricia Bouie-Hutchinson the vice mayor.
They also voted to charge fees for the city’s two pickleball courts when someone wants to reserve the space for an event.
Pickleball coach Denise Devonish held a free clinic at the courts in April and said the positioning of the courts backed up to each other made it challenging for the nearly 20 participants to play at the same time.
Should she ever charge for the clinics, she said she wouldn’t be able to play if someone else was on the next court. Devonish said the fees would allow her to reserve the courts during clinic hours.
The fees adopted by the commission were $25 for up to three hours of pickleball, $50 for a full day and $15 per hour for play time under the lights.
