During the 2024 Surfside election, then-candidate Charles Burkett made a stunningly tone-deaf statement in his ​​January 23rd campaign email, declaring:

To many in the Jewish community, locally and worldwide, this wasn’t just a random observation. It was a thinly veiled swipe at Surfside’s proudly Kosher restaurant scene, where observance of Shabbat means closing on Saturdays. Burkett didn’t just highlight this reality — he branded it as a problem he intended to fix.​

Facing public outrage, Burkett quickly tried to walk it back. But once in office, his actions spoke louder than any retraction ever could.

With the full support of his Rubber Stamp Commission, Burkett pushed for a staggering increase in parking rates — up to $10 an hour. Local businesses warned it would drive customers away. He didn’t listen. Today, visitors pay more for parking than some meals cost — exactly the kind of deterrent that hurts the very district that generates millions in revenue for our town.

​Need more proof? Consider Bagel Boss, a Kosher eatery that spent over a year battling Surfside’s bureaucracy just to get a permit. Despite having every legal right to operate, they were stonewalled with no explanation — until they finally gave up and took over an existing location to bypass the town’s manufactured roadblocks.

​And just last week, things escalated.

​Surfside's incompetent Town Manager Mark Blumstein, in a stunning display of arrogance, issued a town-wide email banning employees from using Town Hall parking lots. Instead, all 167 staffers (per Surfside’s own FY2025 Budget) are now being forced to park in the already overburdened business district lots — displacing the very customers that restaurants rely on to survive.​

To be clear:

• Surfside already rents out 160 of our spaces under its "Business Permit Parking Program"
• Double-parking on Harding Avenue remains a daily safety issue
• And now, 167 more spots are being hijacked by Blumstein for Town Hall staff — while he himself parks comfortably next to a private entrance, rain or shine.

Why would any town do this — especially when Surfside is one of just three municipalities in Florida that collects its own Resort and Food & Beverage taxes? That’s $7.5 million a year that helps offset the costs for vital services like Parks & Recreation, Police overtime, and community events. And yet the mayor and his loyal lapdogs are actively discouraging the visitors and revenue that fund those very programs.

The goal is crystal clear:
​Drive away the patrons, and the Kosher restaurants will fold.​
Then Burkett’s campaign promise becomes reality: A Surfside where “the majority of downtown restaurants don’t close for half the weekend.”​

This is not leadership. It’s sabotage. And the community is watching.

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Sources:

​​Burkett's January 24, 2024 Campaign Email​