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Riviera councilman who made a motion to fire former city manager is out; no clear winners

Terence Davis
Posted at 11:29 PM, Mar 12, 2019
and last updated 2019-03-13 06:57:29-04

RIVIERA BEACH, Fla. — Riviera Beach Councilman Terence Davis, who motioned to fire the city manager on September 2017, is out. That is about the only thing that was clearly decided in Tuesday’s election as every race is heading to a runoff election.

RELATED: Full election results

Three council seats and the mayor are up for election. Every race had several candidates running, making it hard for any to gather the needed 50 percent to win.

Davis was the only incumbent to not make it into the runoff election.

In his race, Douglas Lawson and Cory Blackwell will face off.

Lawson said he is excited Davis is out.

“The reason why I actually stepped into this race was because we had a lot of problems and issues in our community and Councilman Davis was one of the issues,” Lawson said. “And now that we’re in a position to move the city forward, that’s the direction we’re going to go. I’m excited that that man is not in the runoff with me and Mr. Blackwell.”

The other council member who voted to fire the former city manager, Lynne Hubbard, is still hanging on by a thread. She got around 18 percent of the vote and will face Tradrick McCoy, who got around 28 percent of the vote.

“This was a referendum on change,” McCoy said. “We’re not settling for complacency. We want to raise the bar higher.”

McCoy said he thinks the firing of the former city manager played a big role during Tuesday’s election and that the people of Riviera Beach hadn’t forgotten.

In district three, Councilwoman Tonya Davis Johnson will face Shirley Lanier in the runoff election.

All three charter amendments passed, including the introduction of term limits.

A sign that change is coming to the city of Riviera Beach.