PAHOKEE -- The City of Pahokee General Election (nonpartisan) will be held on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.  

In the Commission Group 1 race, incumbent Juan “Johnny” Gonzalez is challenged by Monique Gordon and Everett D. McPherson.

McPherson has lived in Pahokee for 59 years. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Florida A&M University in Criminal Justice.

“The current state of our city and relationship, the lack of transparency and stagnate state of our city growth motivated me to be a part of the solution to moving our/city of Pahokee forward,” he stated. “I have a proven record in government with the State of  Florida as an Assistant Warden ( Acting Warden), supervising over 200 plus employees, approximately 1200 offenders with budgets ranging in the millions. My experience as Audit Coordinator for my institution as well as serving as an audit team member for other facilities to ensure accreditation compliance with the American Correctional Accreditation (ACA) standards committee. I was responsible for reviewing policies and procedures to ensure compliance as well as recommend necessary updates and changes to optimize the quality of life.”

He said the most important problems facing the City of Pahokee are communication, transparency, housing and economic development.

To solve the transparency problem, he said he would “provide a live program that gives city commissioners access to review only all projects and finances live which will give them the latitude to share how and where the finances are spent with the citizens.”

Everett said he would continue to partner with developers to build more houses in Pahokee.

He said he would improve economic development by upgrading the Pahokee campground to a state of the art facility and reopening the restaurant as a city-run business.

Candidates Gonzalez and Gordon have not yet responded to the questions emailed to them by the newspaper.