1639-22 Politics FRI APR 06 1984 ED: FINAL
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: 1C LENGTH: 701 MEDIUM
ILLUST: photo: Jay Dermer
gOURCE: PAUL SHANNON Herald Staff Writer
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JAY DERMER, EX-BEACH MAYOR,
SUFFERS HEART ATTACK AT SPA, DIES
Jay Dermer, the 54-year-old former mayor of Miami Beach who led repeated
drives to restore the city' s beach, died suddenly in a Central Florida health
spa early Thursday.
Dermer, a portly, balding man, was sitting down to breakfast at the
Safety Harbor Spa near Dunedin when he suffered a massive heart attack.
Doctors at Mease Hospital nearby pronounced him dead at 9 : 30 a.m.
Dermer burst onto the Beach political scene in 1967 , when his first try
for public office pitted him against incumbent Mayor Elliot Roosevelt. The
race was bitter. Dermer, to the chagrin of the former President' s son,
depicted himself as a "people ' s" candidate who would fight against special
interests .
Dermer, an attorney who moved to the Beach from New York City in 1955,
beat Roosevelt by about 2 , 000 votes. He then immediately began a fight that
would consume him throughout his two terms as mayor -- restoring the city' s
beach. v
Miami Beach had to rebuild its eroding beach if it were to regain its
place among the world' s top resorts, Dermer said. The private beaches that had
been carved out by hotel owners should be declared public so the city could
t federal money for the project, he argued.
When the hotel owners resisted, the mayor declared, "Miami Beach is the
nation' s most graphic example of hotel owners stealing the beaches. "
Dermer was the author of numerous proposals to force the hotel owners to
provide public access to the beaches. Each was defeated by the Beach City
Commission, where Dermer' s lone supporter was a young attorney named Norman
Ciment.
Ciment provided Dermer with the second he needed when the mayor brought
up a motion to discuss the beach. Though Dermer knew his proposals had no
chance of passage, he filibustered to focus attention on the issue. The tactic
outraged his commission opponents, who accused him of grandstanding.
"He was an individualist, " said Ciment, who as mayor last year presided
over completion of the $80 million beach restoration. "His fight to restore
the beach never made any headway" during his terms. "But we ultimately proved
him right. "
In 1969, Dermer ran for a second term against attorney Ellis Rubin, who
wanted Miami Beach to leave Dade and become Miami Beach County. Dermer claimed
the proposed change was a smokescreen that eventually would lead to casino
gambling on the Beach.
Dermer was re-elected by an overwhelming margin, and used his office as
a platform against pro-casino forces. Casino gambling, he said, would "open
the doors to the return of the syndicate. "
Dermer' s wife, 48-year-old Yaffa, said his stand against casinos was
typical of how he approached political issues. "He was an honest man. He
always fought for the moral strength of the community. "
After a Beach theater showed a risque film, Dermer started an anti-
:nography drive. He also initiated social programs for the elderly and began
the first drug education campaign at the Beach for children.
One of the few two-term mayors on Miami Beach in the last several
decades, Dermer decided to run against U.S. Rep. Claude Pepper, D.-Miami,
instead of trying for a third term.
After he lost that bid, Dermer left politics and concentrated on his law
practice. Dermer, who specialized in personal injury and negligence suits,
practiced for years at an office at 420 Lincoln Rd.
He returned briefly to public life in 1978, as head of the anti-casino
)up called Floridians Against Casino Takeover. "He fought that issue all
the way, " said Harold Rosen, a former Beach mayor who had been Dermer' s law
partner.
Dermer also had been head of the Miami Beach Bar Association, the Beach
Jaycees and the Beach chapter of the Elks Club. He graduated from Indiana
University, and received his law degree from Fordham University.
In addition to his wife, Dermer is survived by three children, David, 21,
Esther, 14 , and Ron, 12 ; his brother, Burton; and his mother, Rose.
Services will be at 11 : 30 a.m. today at Riverside Memorial Chapel, 1920
Alton Rd. He will be buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in New York.
ADDED TERMS: obituary