Holmes Beach voters elected Jessica Patel to a seat on the City Commission, while tossing Carol Soustek. City Commissioners Steve Oelfke and Terry Schaefer held onto their seats at City Hall.
Commissioners were elected in an at-large contest, with four candidates running to fill three of five seats on the Commission.
Manatee County election results show Oelfke won the most votes, about 32.41% of all votes cast in the barrier island municipality. That’s notable as Oelfke was appointed to his post in February to replace Pat Morton, who resigned from the seat that month, according to the Anna Maria Island Sun.
Patel, vice president of the Anna Maria Elementary PTO, came in second with 27.34% of the vote. She had criticized the city’s millage rate and called prior hurricane response in the city disorganized at a candidate forum covered by Pulse of Manatee. She will be the only newcomer to the Commission when she takes office.
Schaefer came in third place with 21.44% of the vote, getting nearly 140 few votes that Patel. The incumbent was first elected to the Commission in 2019 and won re-election in 2021 and 2023. He will keep his seat for another term.
Soustek was the longest-serving Commissioner appearing on the ballot. She was first appointed to a vacancy on the Commission in 2014, and won two-years in the next five subsequent election cycles. But she took just 18.81% of the vote in this election, losing her place on the board.
