I check the work.

Nick Coppola has spent his life around work that has to be done right the first time, and the last decade fighting to make sure Delray Beach gets the same.

Nick Coppola came up through the electrical trade, starting as an apprentice through the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and becoming an electrician in 1991, then advancing to general foreman, superintendent, and, for fifteen years, electrical and general contractor. He holds an associate degree in Labor Studies and a bachelor's degree in Human Services from the State University of New York, and a certificate in building construction management from New York University. Across more than thirty-five years in construction, Nick was responsible for walking the site, reading the drawings, and making sure projects were completed properly, stayed within budget, and matched what had been promised. Now retired from the trade, he brings a lasting appreciation for careful planning, straight answers, and holding people accountable for results.

That is the standard Nick will bring to City Hall. With prices continuing to rise, residents feel every dollar the city spends, and they deserve to see something real come back for it. When the city signs a contract, someone has to read it, check the work, and make sure residents got what they paid for. Nick will ask the difficult questions and make sure the city delivers the services and projects residents were promised.

Nick came to Delray Beach from New York. He and his partner, David, made their home in the Sherwood Park neighborhood, and Delray is where their life together is rooted: their neighbors, their friends, and the community organizations Nick gives his time to. What this city means to the two of them, Nick has put simply:

“I could walk down Atlantic Avenue with my arm around David's shoulder comfortably.”

Nick Coppola

That ease is what Delray at its best feels like, and it is the standard Nick holds for this city: a place where every neighbor can walk its most public street and feel the same way.

Showing up in Delray

Nick served as Chair of the City of Delray Beach Code Enforcement Board. He led the effort to hold people and businesses accountable, and he's ready to bring that same effort to the City Commission. Nick ran the board on the principle that the standards apply to everyone, whether the violation is a neighbor's overgrown lot or a developer who decided a permit was optional. The job gave him a working knowledge of how Delray's ordinances actually function on the ground, and a clear view of how often City Hall lets things slide.

He now serves on the city's Site Plan Review and Appearance Board, which reviews the site plans and designs proposed for new development in Delray. He intends to use the seat the way he used a job site: read the drawings first, and ask the questions while there is still time to fix the answer.

Nick does the same work in his own neighborhood. The Sherwood Park Civic Association is the neighborhood's collective voice: a volunteer organization of residents that keeps neighbors informed, brings their concerns to City Hall, and speaks for the neighborhood when decisions about its streets are being made. In 2018 it was barely functioning and close to folding. Nick and a handful of neighbors took it over rather than watch that voice disappear, and he has served as vice president and treasurer ever since. The results are concrete: the association's finances are healthy, its membership is engaged and growing, and when Sherwood Park residents raise an issue with the city today, they raise it as an organized neighborhood instead of a lone phone call.

At Pines of Delray, the condominium community on the city's west side where many residents are retirees living on fixed incomes, Nick served on the association board, including as its president through the pandemic. That job was the stewardship of his neighbors' money: the annual budget, the reserves that protect the community from surprise assessments, and the water bill that came up at every single meeting. For the people who live there, it meant the community's finances were watched by someone who read every line, and that the questions got asked before the money was spent.

Service beyond city limits

Nick serves on the board of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council and on the Voters Alliance. He is the former board chair and former treasurer of Compass Community Center in Lake Worth Beach, the LGBTQ community center serving Palm Beach County, and the former secretary of Impact 100 Men of Palm Beach County. Earlier, in New York, he served on the Community Advisory Board and later the Board of Directors of Gay Men's Health Crisis, where he was Governance Chair.

In 2018 the NAACP presented him with the Dukes/Rolfe Leadership Award for his HIV advocacy in the Black and Latino communities, work he has described as his main focus for decades. He was later named to OutSFL's inaugural Out50 list.

Why he is running

Delray Beach is in the middle of the largest construction and infrastructure program in its history. A new water treatment plant. A rebuilt Pompey Park. A new police headquarters that has been waiting years to get built. Every one of those is a job with a budget, a schedule, and a set of drawings, every one of them is paid for by Delray taxpayers, and every one of them is being managed by a City Hall that has struggled to finish what it starts. When those projects run late or run over, residents pay for it twice: once in taxes and again in the services they were promised and did not get.

Nick is running because Delray deserves a City Commission that knows how to turn promises into results. He has the experience to understand the work, the discipline to hold a contract to what it says, and the energy to fight for residents when City Hall falls short.