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February 27, 2026 13 mins
Grant is running for the City Council District 3 seat, challenging incumbent Judy Dugo.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Joel Malcolm for WJ and O dot com. My

(00:02):
election spotlight on the City of Green Acres. Two races
there for the city Council. You have the District two
race which we've been covering, and the District three race.
Two candidates there, including the incumbent and opponent Leonard Grant.
You will see Leonard Aubrey in quotes Grant, thank you
for joining me.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
That it's pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me, Sir.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Would you be comfortable if I called you Aubrey? That
might be That's probably how a little more colloquial, right
than Leonard.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
I would be more than comfortable if you called me Aubrey, gotcha?
All right?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
All right, I appreciate you coming on with me. Let's
before we get into this, let's get some background on
you work experience, how long you've been in Green Acres,
anything else you'd like to share.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Absolutely, So, first of all, again, thanks for having me
and out to the people in Green Acres. So, I've
been here for eleven years, moved up here from Boynton
Beach the house in Green Acres eleven years ago. We
came here because it was affordable and then fell in
love with the city as we continue to live here.

(01:10):
My background, you know, I started working for the community
when I was thirteen years old.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
And you say thirteen, Yeah, thirteen years.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Old was when I got my first paper route. I
was so excited my first paper route to deliver newspapers,
you know, just so I can make some money to
you know, fix my bike up and things like that.
But that's literally where I started serving, learning to serve
my community. But I moved, you know, obviously grew up
from that, and at one point I was working in

(01:40):
the sanitation industry, you know, literally throwing garbage in the
back of the truck, you know, when I was younger,
and kind of you know, worked my way up and
you know, now I own a, you know, several businesses
here in the city. I have a print shop and
a tax office. So that's kind of my background.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
I also sit on the zoning board for the city.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
I'm a veteran, so I'd love to do a lot
of work for veterans, make sure that our veterans are
taking care of in our city. But that's kind of
my my my upbringing and my work experience coming up
through the ranks.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
And here we are today, where I'm running for the
City of Green Acres.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Hey, you've got the print shopping. I heard you mentioned
the tax what what kind of a tax business?

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Like accounting or.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (02:26):
So we have a liberty tax franchise as one of
the offices that we have, and then also have a
Minuteman Press printing company.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
And other businesses as well.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
To do.

Speaker 3 (02:39):
Right now, those those are the two that we have
here in Green Acres.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Gotcha? Okay, all right, awesome, all right? Have you run
for office in the past or is this your first time?

Speaker 3 (02:48):
So I did run the last time against the same person,
and it was really my first time ever running, ever
doing a campaign. So it was a you know, a
huge learnlearning experience. And you know, that was four years ago.
But within those four years, definitely got so much more
experience under my belt again sitting on the zoning board

(03:11):
and sitting on the zoning Board of Appeals, So I
got a lot more experience, you know, with the city
and learning a lot more about some of the ordinances
and rules and things like that.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
But yeah, that's what we've been knowing.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
And you know, I and I asked this question one
of the candidates in the other race in the city
council too. It's the same thing. Ran last time unsuccessfully
four years ago, running again, and I, you know, and
he said, you know, he's got more experience at running,
and so I asked him the question, I'll ask you
the same thing. What as far as experience and this

(03:46):
is just focused on running, you know, running a local
election or running for a local office. I guess I
should say, what, if anything, did you pick up from that?
That's and I want to say making it easier this time,
because I know that running for office is never easy.
I've spoken with enough candidates to tell you that. But
you know, what's helping you along.

Speaker 2 (04:08):
A great question.

Speaker 3 (04:09):
So, Uh, some of the lessons that I've learned over
the four years is that you got to meet people.
When I initially ran last time, I did a lot more.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
You know, I did more of.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
The marketing because that more of my background, things like that.
But now you know, again serving the city, learning more
of the process as far as campaigning, uh, not targeting,
not not.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Relying so much on my print.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Background, but actually going out and actually talking to people,
meeting them one on one, finding out what their issues are, what,
you know, what do they see for the city, anything
that's bothering.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Them and you know, being more personable.

Speaker 3 (04:50):
And that's I think the key that was that I
was missing, you know the previous time that I definitely
took care of this time around.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Is there any any in your you know, your business
background here that you you know, you're you're a local
small business owner. Is there something that you feel that
would help you with when it comes to, you know,
being a councilman.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
Absolutely, So one of the things I bring a different perspective,
uh than what we currently have on our council. So
first of all, I'm a veteran. Number two, I'm a
family man. I have young children growing up in the city,
so I bring different viewpoints.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (05:31):
And also and I guess you I said about the business.
You know, I understand budgeting. I understand we have to
you know, I had employees going through COVID, so I
understand how to hand you know, be able to you know,
change and adapt, uh in order to keep employees. And
you know, I wasn't I didn't have to lay anybody off.

(05:51):
I didn't have to let anybody go during COVID, you know,
but we was able to, you know, kind of work
around and make it, you know, make it work to
make sure that we're successful all the way through it.
And we you know, we actually were successful, came out
on top. So you know, strategies had to change a
little bit as far as you know, when it comes
to the printing and what we're printing, but you know,
that's part of it.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
You have to be able to adapt. You have to
be able to change.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
And I think that's something that I bring again to
the city council is my adaptability, my experience, you know
again as a soldier, as a veteran, do you have
to be able to adapt.

Speaker 2 (06:26):
To change, you know, and that's what they train us for.

Speaker 3 (06:29):
And I think again that's something that I bring that
the council currently doesn't have.

Speaker 1 (06:35):
How often do you attend city council meetings? I understand
they do them a couple of times a month, right, No,
right now.

Speaker 3 (06:43):
This is usually like once a month is a council meeting?

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Oh okay, somebody went another candidate told me in another
race that there were two a month, two Mondays a month, okay.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
No, not ingredentus. I'm aware.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Well what do you so how often do you attend
and do you do you feel that you are able
to get responses from the current council members. And I'm
not just you know, talking about the one in your district,
but in general.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
So that's one of the things I have experience working with,
even council people outside of our city. A lot of
those folks, you know, they endorsed me before, and I'm
great at relationships.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
That's one of the things that I'm very strong with.
You know.

Speaker 3 (07:31):
Again, I've been dealing with you know, these not specially
Green Acres, but other cities over twenty five years. Fun
fact that I was just somebody asked me today, yourself
a pomp and No.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
Be tenure as you know, maybe eighteen years ago.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
But again, I have relationships outside of our city, and
of course I have relationships with the current council as well.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
So okay, all right, so let's talk about some issues
within the within the city you talk about on your
campaign page. Safety and security is you know, one of
your priorities. And I've been asking this question. It was
some years ago, uh, when the pomp Beach County Sheriff's

(08:21):
Office started doing the law enforcement services in Green Acres
and replacing the old Green Acres PD. How do you
feel they're doing.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
No, I think they're doing a great job. To be honest,
I feel safe in you know, in my neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
My kids can go out and play.

Speaker 3 (08:39):
Obviously there's gonna be times when things need to be addressed,
and uh, you know, the last time they had something
big inside of Green Acres, Uh, there was a tremendous
response and they basically showed what they could do.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
So I'm very pleased.

Speaker 3 (08:55):
With right now the the current you know, way they're
handling safety be and response rates and things.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Like that, and the fire and EMT as well. I
know you reference them as well.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah. Absolutely. I actually did a they put on a.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
Training for CPR and I was able to talk to
them and they were telling us, you know, what their
response rate is or their response time is in Green Acres,
and I think they was telling me like it's about
six minutes in the max anywhere in Green Acres. So
obviously minutes are very important when it comes to emergencies,

(09:32):
and that's great that they can respond.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
So I'm very pleased with them as well.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
So what would be one key issue if you could
change tomorrow or whenever, you know, if you want, you'd
be sworn in one major issue that you're you feel
like Green Acres lax in that you you would pledge
to fix or change or make better.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
All right.

Speaker 3 (09:59):
So I think right now now our community is not
involved as much as they should be. People's voices is important,
their opinions are important, their views are important, but they
have to come out and there has to be a
way that their voice is made known. I've been to

(10:23):
you know, city council meetings and and again, as I said,
even sit on different zoning zoning board meetings UH where
there's a public opportunity to speak and different issues come
up and there's no public there to speak at all,
whether for it or against it. So I think public
involvement UH is huge that has that has to be addressed,

(10:46):
huge issues.

Speaker 2 (10:47):
A lot of times they don't.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
Get addressed till you know, the horse already left the barn,
so to speak. And a lot of times these things
can be dealt with lots, you know, a lot better
before they even get to you know, a part where
it's you know, like a problem. So I think community
involvement is like one of my passions that definitely I

(11:08):
would push absolutely.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Yeah, it was said to me by a candidate and
the other race that they see when they go to
these meetings, maybe three residents there, and it's true they
would you know. So my question is, as a council member,
what is there that you can do to drum up
more people to these meetings.

Speaker 2 (11:32):
Communication. You have to communicate to people. You have to
go where they're at.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
A lot of times, you can't just sit there and
just send out a public notice and think that everybody's
gonna you know, somebody's gonna read it and all of
a sudden they're going to jump up and come to
a meeting.

Speaker 2 (11:47):
No, you have to go where they're at.

Speaker 3 (11:48):
Just like the same way where campaigning, where we go
out and we talk to folks.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
You have to do the same thing. It doesn't stop
when we you.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
Know, just because we win or and then you pick
it up again four years later when it's time to
you know, run an elections. That no, you got to
communicate on an ongoing basis and whether that's you know,
social media is huge now continue with the social media
even its phone calls and again going to where people

(12:16):
at restaurants are going around. But these things have to
be communicated and have to be involved because again things happen,
orderinance has changed, all has changed, and people to have
no idea until it's too late.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
All right, Just one final question for you two candidates
in this race. You have an incumbent and yourself. Why
should folks vote for We're going to say it like
it's on the ballot, Leonard Aubrey Grant.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
So thank you once again. People should vote for me
because again what I bring to the table.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
I bring a different viewpoint.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
I bring a viewpoint of being a family man with
a young family. I also bring the experience of being
on the zoning board and and there's only the board
of appeals. I've also have experience working with other cities.
I have relationships with myriad of people all around our
county and.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Even in other counties.

Speaker 3 (13:12):
I'm also a veteran, so I've been trained, so I
understand how to make decisions in tough times. These are
the things, these are the qualities that I bring to
the city council that you can trust and know that
I always listen to what the people say and vote accordingly,
not go by my own opinion. But you have to
be a voice of the people. So that's why they

(13:32):
should vote for.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
Me all right.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
Well again, we appreciate you joining us and talking to
the voters of Green Acres Council District three in the
City of Green Acres. Candidates Leonard Aubrey Grant likes to
go by Aubrey, but that's how it is on your ballot.
Leonard Aubrey Grant here on wj NO dot com.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
Thanks again, that was an absolute pleasure. Thank you so much.
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