Published On: Thu, Aug 2nd, 2018

Meet Your Boca Raton City Council Seat A Candidates: Tamara McKee

By: Michael Demyan

Tamara McKee will be running against Andy Thomson and Kathryn Cottrell for City Council Seat A in the upcoming election on Aug. 28.

She considered running for a seat during the next election cycle, but after Scott Singer decided to run for mayor after Mayor Susan Haynie’s suspension, McKee saw an opening to run this year instead.

McKee is currently a small business owner and has produced advertisements for numerous large companies, such as Publix, JetBlue, Disney and The Home Depot. She has also held small acting roles in various movies and television shows under the name Tamara Jones, including “House of Cards” and “2 Fast 2 Furious.”

After twenty years in Boca Raton, McKee has been active within the community, dedicating her time to over 30 non-profit organizations around the city. She also served as a trustee for Boca Raton’s General Employees Pension Board, as well as two terms on the Florida Real Estate Appraisers’ Board after being appointed by Gov. Rick Scott.

“I have more experience as a resident – paying taxes, living here in the community with over 30 non-profit organizations, running a small business, raising four children in the public schools – than all the other candidates combined, times two,” she said.

McKee said that she wants to restore trust in the city government. After Haynie was arrested in April, McKee said that residents want to know that the officials they elect are transparent.

“My biggest proposal for increasing transparency is, when I’m elected, I will introduce an ordinance in September that everyone who’s on the council releases their tax returns, with their amounts blocked out,” she said. “I don’t want to have people’s privacy invaded, but show where their money comes from.”

She also thinks that Boca Raton needs to work on what she calls the “Three P’s,” which are parking, permitting and public schools. The parking issue is not necessarily something she said she experiences, but she has heard multiple complaints and is taking it to heart, suggesting a recirculating trolley in downtown.

After talking to some small business owners who are opening satellite offices in Boca Raton, she realized that they often had a hard time getting basic permitting information, which is something she wants to make easier to acquire, along with speeding up the permitting process for both businesses and homeowners.

“Right now I see a culture of ‘no or slow’ and that needs to change,” she said.

Public schools are the third issue of her “Three P’s and she said that while the city does not have an actual effect on the school district, the real power is staying after them.

“Anyone that tells you that they’re an education platform candidate is being disingenuous and that is because we have a county school system and anything with the city has zero real effect on the school district,” she said. “What has an effect on the school district is our city leadership engaging with our school district.”

As a longtime resident, McKee stressed that the only people she is indebted to are the residents of Boca Raton and she wants to make sure the city is a great place for them to live.

“My vision of Boca Raton based on my experience and also my continued hope is that Boca Raton is a city with a world-class brain and a small town heart.”

Residents will have the opportunity to hear from McKee, and her two opponents at the Boca Raton Tribune Candidate Forum on August 17 at the Boca Raton Community Center. For more information on the candidate forum, please click here.

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