Evan Piper Wins Mayoral Race in North Miami Beach

The city of North Miami Beach’s special mayoral election came to a close with Evan Scott Piper taking home the win.

Piper received 57% of the vote, just 101 more votes than his opponent, former city Commissioner Paule Villard. Villard’s final tally accounted for just under 43% of the vote.

Voter turnout was low, with less than 17% of registered voters casting ballots in the Dec. 5 special election. There are 21,391 people registered to vote in the city of North Miami Beach, which has a population of roughly 43,000.

Piper is the president of the North Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce and a former chair of the city’s planning and zoning board. He served as commissioner in 2018 as an appointee after the late Frantz Pierre was removed from office.

The mayor-elect also served as chair of the city’s Advisory Committee of Disabled Individuals; Piper has been in a wheelchair since surviving an airplane crash in 2001.

This month’s special election was held to replace former Mayor Anthony DeFillipo, who was removed from office by Gov. Ron Desantis after being charged with three counts of voter fraud over the summer. DeFillipo’s trial is scheduled for February of next year.

During his campaign, Piper promised that if elected, his first priority would be to squash the divisiveness that ensued when DeFillipo was first accused of living outside of city limits in December 2022. According to Piper, that sentiment still stands.

“The first order of business is to create unity with the commission and then looking to have that unity trickle down to the city staff and then trickle down to the residents,” Piper said to Biscayne Times following his win. “I have good relationships with all of the sitting commissioners, and I’m hopeful that we’re going to be able to unify and become a team really quickly.”

The mayor-elect said he also hopes to eliminate wasteful spending and add new sources of revenue to the city budget.

The regularly scheduled mayoral election is due for November 2024, meaning Piper has less than a year left in his term. He told the Biscayne Times in October that he was unsure as to whether he’d run again for reelection, but has since become invigorated by his victory and says he is now likely to be on next year’s ballot.

Residents can possibly expect to see Villard’s name on the ballot, too, after she said during her campaign that she always intended to run in 2024. Her defeat in the special election marks the second for the former commissioner, having lost to Commissioner Jay Chernoff during her reelection bid last year.

Piper will be sworn into the commission Dec. 12 and attend his first meeting the following week on Dec. 19.