By: Megan Mandatta
Yvette Drucker is the incumbent candidate for Boca Raton City Council Seat C in the 2021 election focusing her campaign around progress for Boca while noting the importance of representation.
Drucker is a first-generation Cuban American and was appointed to the council in October as the first Hispanic person to serve on the council. Drucker has served for 20 meetings and notes her one hundred percent attendance record.
Drucker’s background is in her 13-year career in corporate America dealing with resources and project management but has been involved with 19 non-profit organizations in a leadership role. Drucker notes her ability to combine her experiences from both benefits her in her role as councilwoman. Most of Drucker’s non-profit work has revolved around children and family advocacy.
“I believe, even more today, that local government has never played a more special role in our footprint,” Drucker explains. “If you just look at what’s going on in Texas, we never realized how important our local government is. We are the folks that are touching your drinking water, your canals, your parks and beaches, your schools directly, your mandates. We’re really dealing with the lives of everyday people.”
The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuring the safety of citizens was the major motivator for Drucker that inspired her to become involved in local government.
Drucker explains that the city council seats are not restricted to zonal representation, and Drucker plans to represent the entire city of Boca and is not solely focused on the downtown area.
“That is important to me, to have a lot of diversity and a lot of people living in different sections so then you can really represent well,” Drucker said.
Improving beaches and parks is high on Drucker’s priority list in her role as councilwoman if she were elected this year.
“My special interest is in the people,” Drucker said. “People are running the business; people are the ones going to the businesses. So, I think if you represent the people, you’re going to cover the business, the commerce, everything.”
Drucker was the deciding vote in a student housing development project to circumvent the issue of college students in Boca Raton renting family homes. This project is meant to encourage students to live in student housing, so more young adults would be inclined to live in those homes and potentially reside there for years.
The conversation soon shifted from traffic concerns and general community development to the topic of COVID-19 and Boca’s response to this devastating pandemic.
“People should 100% be wearing a mask and should be responsible to follow CDC rules. I believe that it is shown in science that it works, so we have been, as a city, using code enforcement,” Drucker explained. “Any businesses that are violating, we send code enforcement to talk to the businesses and sometimes it’s the actual people that don’t want to wear it. So, it’s like we often have our civic engagement, we all have to play our part in this role.”
Drucker conveyed her hopes of Boca Raton becoming a vaccine distribution site, noting the success Boca had rolling out 200 vaccines in January.
The three main campaign focuses for Drucker would be COVID-19 and the safety of people, “smart development”, and education/environment together. For Drucker, smart development is the way in which development should only be executed when all the plans and methods for the development are planned out seamlessly first.
Many of Drucker’s plans are focused on long-term results and manageability. The current councilwoman will analyze how a project will play out in this month, the next month, and even 10 years down the road to see how it will be handled in all aspects of planning.
The next 10 years for Boca have been dubbed The Golden Years by Drucker as she envisions grand things for the city. Drucker notes the younger families moving into the area along with more students and the growing diversity for Boca Raton. The technology and development projects in the area, coupled with the unique parks and beaches create a booming atmosphere for the city, according to Drucker.
“I am the candidate that wants to work together with no special interests to push forward a community that’s made up of a lot of different people,” Drucker said. “I am my own person, I don’t have political baggage, I am not a career politician, I’m your true public servant.”
Watch the complete interview below!
