Florida
Former Florida mayor seeks return to city commission
His goals include making Stuart’s economy one based on tourism.
MARTIN COUNTY — Sensing chaos in the city, former Stuart Mayor Merritt Matheson has filed to run again for a seat on the City Commission.
So far, he has one opponent: Johnny Cealmov.
Matheson served as mayor from December 2021 to August 2022, when former Mayor Christopher Collins defeated him by a slim margin of 95 votes or 2.6% in the election that year. He began his service as a city commissioner in 2018.
“I’m running to bring back integrity, respectful, responsible leadership and stability to the city of Stuart,” Matheson said. “I’d like to stop the chaos that we’ve seen in the city.”
Collins, in his first term on the commission, quit as mayor April 30 to run for Martin County Commission. Stuart Vice Mayor Sean Reed automatically becomes mayor.
The chaos includes going through four city managers in six months and departures of high-level staff, such as the finance director, as well as other finance department staff, Matheson said.
The chaos also includes, he said, the unnecessary lawsuits the city has faced and others it lost, such as one with Polk Street Hotels. It includes, too, the severance paid to former City Manager Michael Mortell, who was fired without cause.
The city remains out of compliance with Senate Bill 180, a state law prohibiting changes to land development regulations between August 1, 2024, and October 1, 2027, because it’s still implementing the changes it made after August 1, 2024.
The state, Matheson said, has reacted to the chaos by taking away Stuart’s ability to govern itself — by enacting laws like SB 180 — which made changes to Stuart’s land development regulations null and void.
What prompted Matheson to run?
Nothing in particular prompted him to run for City Commission this time, he said. The chaos certainly played a part.
Collins’ push to use Martin County Forever funds to buy a historic school building was another reason, Matheson said. Martin County Forever funds are meant for improvements to water quality and to conserve environmentally sensitive land.
Stuart is getting about $2 million a year for 10 years from the Martin County Forever initiative that voters passed in 2024.
“The best way to manage growth in Martin County is grow our conservation land,” Matheson said. He helped lead the work to get the Martin County Forever initiative passed and he sits on the Martin County Environmental Lands Oversight Committee, which helps direct the use of those funds.
What he would like to accomplish
Calling himself a “slow-growth proponent,” Matheson said he follows the law and understands property rights, too, he said.
“The job of a commissioner, more often than not, is choosing the best of two bad outcomes,” Matheson said.
He would like to improve the city’s infrastructure, such as sidewalks, bike lanes and landscaping. And he wants to find solutions to ease traffic. He’s a proponent of other ways of getting around, which might include a water taxi, for example.
And he would like Stuart to become a tourism-based economy, rather than a growth-based economy, he said.
Keith Burbank is a watchdog reporter for TCPalm, usually covering Martin County. He can be reached at keith.burbank@tcpalm.com.