Meet Our Council

Wellington’s Leaders Reflect On The Past As They Look To The Future

Story by Julie Unger    Photo by Abner Pedraza

As the Village of Wellington marks the 20th anniversary of incorporation, the community is being led by a Wellington Village Council whose members have set their roots in Wellington, are raising their families in Wellington and some who even grew up in Wellington.

Mayor Anne Gerwig moved to Wellington when she got married in 1990. She has seen the village grow and evolve over the last two decades into a great place to live, work and play.

“There’s no better place to raise a family,” Gerwig said, adding that she wants to bring all of the elements of Wellington together — from the parks, to the neighborhoods, to the shopping areas and to the equestrian community.

“My mission is to draw us all together,” she said. “We have a commitment toward the environment that I think is unmatched in South Florida. We need to think about that as we move forward.”

Wellington will continue its focus on the many elements that need to be taken into account, especially considering its proximity to the Everglades, she said.

Vice Mayor John McGovern moved to Wellington when he was in the seventh grade. “It was a very different place than it is today,” he said.

Wellington was just a fledgling community back then. There was, he recalled, perhaps one other house on the street where his family was moving, and it looked like a forest.

“There were no high schools, no middle schools, the hospital was just opening,” he said. “In a lot of ways, I grew up with Wellington. I was in the first class that went to Wellington High School for four years, and only two of those were on the campus that we now know to be Wellington High School. It was an exciting time.”

McGovern chose to raise his family in Wellington for the same reason his parents moved their family here, and why so many others move to Wellington.

“This is a beautiful place to live, a family-focused community, and a place that has great public schools at every level, elementary, middle and high school,” he said.

As vice mayor, McGovern wants to help move Wellington forward in a manner that prepares it for the planned development nearby while making sure that the things that make Wellington unique are protected and preserved.

“We are one Wellington,” he said. “It’s not equestrian versus non-equestrian, gated community versus non-gated community or old versus young. Everybody here in Wellington is here because they love this place.”

People want community, land, schools, safety, great neighborhoods and parks, McGovern said, adding that the unique equestrian element also attracts residents to Wellington.

Councilman Michael Drahos moved to Wellington in 1986 when he was in fourth grade. “I had a great childhood growing up in Wellington,” he recalled.

Moving away to attend college and law school, Drahos never found a community quite like Wellington. He chose to raise his own family here so that his children could have the same hometown experience he enjoyed.

While on the council, he wants to continue to be forward-thinking.

“There are a lot of things about Wellington that make it great — our education, our parks and rec program, and our lifestyle,” he said.

Drahos wants to advance those experiences for the residents of Wellington while continuously improving and engaging the community.

Transparency, communication and responsible spending are important to Councilman Michael Napoleone, who chose Wellington as his place to set down roots.

“When my wife and I got married, we didn’t know if we were going to have children or not, but we did know that if we did, we wanted to be somewhere where it was a family-friendly community with good schools, good parks and a neighborhood feel. That’s how we found Wellington,” he said.

They moved to the community in 2002 and have enjoyed life in Wellington ever since.

“We’ve just loved everything about Wellington,” he said. “We have to preserve the quality of life that we have.”

People live in Wellington, Napoleone said, because of the hard work of the previous councils and how the village has evolved. The parks and schools are part of what keeps Wellington great, he explained.

“As big as we are, we still have that small-town feel,” he said. “The decisions we make today will resonate into the future.”

Councilwoman Tanya Siskind moved to Wellington with her family 15 years ago from Maryland because of the schools and the area, knowing that Wellington would be a great place to raise children.

As a councilwoman, Siskind is focusing on what residents want by serving the community. Continuing Wellington’s great reputation of excellence, she said, is a priority.

“My goal is to continue all that Wellington is and all that Wellington can be with the great schools, the great parks and neighborhoods,” she said. “To have some amount of growth that is responsible, that people want to take Wellington in the direction that the people in Wellington want to see it go in.”

Siskind likes Wellington as is and would like to see the equestrian component, as well as all of the residents, represented and flourishing.

While it is difficult to predict what the next 20 years will bring, the current Wellington Village Council, like the councils before it and those to come, will aim to keep Wellington a great place to live, work and play.