Nancy M. Graham
She was elected city commissioner in 1988 and promoted to vice mayor in 1989, but soon resigned to avoid a potential conflict of interest with her law firm.
She is most often recognized for revitalizing downtown West Palm Beach, especially for improvements to Clematis Street and the construction of CityPlace (now known as The Square), which opened about a year after she left office in 1999.
After again briefly returning to the private sector, she served a short stint on the city's Downtown Development Authority board.
She also taught business law and political science at colleges in California and Tennessee before returning to Florida in 2016 and then back to West Palm Beach in 2017.
Upon taking office, Graham succeeded Helen Wilkes, a city commissioner who served as the first female Mayor of West Palm Beach.
[4] During her tenure, Graham focused on creating drug-free zones, demolishing drug houses, and encouraging the city to hire a more diverse workforce.
In addition to Graham, other candidates included attorney and former state representative Joel T. Daves III, senior city planner Jim Exline, Josephine Stenson Grund, property management company owner and former mayor Michael D. Hyman, and former Palm Beach County commissioner Bill Medlen.
[13] Additionally, many store owners left and moved to the malls, while streets were widened to allow cars to speed through the area.
In April, a public forum on redesigning downtown began, hosted by the architecture firm Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company.
[18] Among the first projects was the beautification of Clematis Street, completed in December 1993 after the replacement of benches, sidewalks, and trees over the previous six months.
[20] Architect Dan Kiley was hired for several of the waterfront projects, including building an amphitheater, remodeling the library, and designing an interactive water fountain at Flagler Park.
[21] The plan for building the amphitheater required the city to spend about $1 million for construction, as well as $171,400 for the demolition of a Holiday Inn.
Officials selected the Holiday Inn as the site for the amphitheater because the building had remained vacant and gutted since 1986, while plans for reselling or remodeling the hotel for a different use fell through.
[24] The city commission passed an equal opportunity ordinance on September 12, 1994, which prohibited discrimination based on race, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, disability, and martial or familial status for housing, employment, or public accommodations.
Objections arose regarding the inclusion of sexual orientation, leading to a referendum by voters to decide whether the ordinance should remain as it had passed.
Their plan included an 18 to 24 screen movie theater and a number of restaurants, upscale stores, apartments, and office buildings.
Graham, a proponent of the liquidation, announced that she and city commissioners planned to spend the money on renovating parks, roads, and street lights, as well as the construction of two new fire stations.
[18] In early March 1999, the city commemorated her tenure as mayor by unveiling a monument at the fountain built on Clematis Street in 1994, which dedicated it as Nancy M. Graham Centennial Square.
She failed to disclose this information prior to entering negotiations with the two companies for a major project in San Diego in 2007.
In exchange for a non-contest plea, under which she agreed to not hold elected office in California for three years, Graham was fined $3,300 by the state and $32,000 by the San Diego Ethics Committee.
