by SC Reporter Emilie Alfino
A quick, kind smile is the first impression Sanibel City Councilmember Laura DeBruce makes, followed by her caring, positive attitude. These attributes serve her well as she serves the City of Sanibel in many ways, first on the Planning Commission and now as a member of City Council.
DeBruce’s life has had an international flavor. She grew up in many different places, mostly in Asia and Africa, as her father was in the foreign service. After graduating from the University of Florida and Boston University Law School, she lived in Europe where she taught university courses, was an associate at Baker & McKenzie, and Director of Legal Affairs for CME Media Enterprises, launching several television stations throughout post-Communist Europe.
DeBruce co-founded GrandView Castle Entertainment with her husband, Jeff Blackman, distributing motion pictures throughout Eastern Europe and Russia. As a partner in DeBruce Blackman PLLC, she provides legal and consulting advice. She has also produced several documentary films.
“We started our own business in the television field and ended up living in Prague and then London and Amsterdam and Paris, so it was a wonderful experience, very exciting” DeBruce said.
When her son Luke was about to go into first grade, though, she wanted to give him a different life than what she had, although her childhood was a good one, just different. “We wanted to give him a place with sidewalks and a park he could walk to and an elementary school he could walk to,” she said. They raised their son in Chevy Chase.
She bought a house on Sanibel in 2010 and went back and forth from Chevy Chase to Florida. When Luke decided to go to the University of Florida, DeBruce’s alma mater, the family decided to flip things around and spend most of their time on Sanibel. It became their permanent home in 2015.
Three years later, DeBruce and her husband co-founded Sanibel Carts, a street-legal golf cart rental business on the island. They lost everything to Hurricane Ian in 2022. “It was a really big decision to restart that business,” she said. “It just felt like, do I really have the energy to restart that whole business again?” When Ian hit, they had six employees and a repair business with a mechanic. Still, believing the island will come back, the economy will come back, and visitors will come back, they decided the business was needed more than ever. A lot of people lost their cars after the hurricane.
Her first involvement with the city was with Community Housing & Resources (CHR). She went to a “Give Back Tuesday” event wanting to get involved and soon was doing fund raising, events, and was invited to serve on the board of directors. Since CHR is a quasi-governmental organization, DeBruce started to get interested in the Land Development Code and how it affected CHR. When there was an opening on the Planning Commission, she applied for it and was very happy to be appointed. “I loved my time on the Planning Commission,” DeBruce remembers. “I loved everything about the Land Development Code and got to know so much about the island.”
DeBruce became interested when there was an open seat on Sanibel City Council and threw her hat in the ring to replace Arlene Dillon, who began an interim term in February following the resignation of Dr. Scott Crater. DeBruce was sworn in as a councilmember in April after being unopposed during the candidate qualifying period.
“[Running for office] is more of a stressful process than I thought, collecting signatures, filling out the paperwork, opening up a bank account,” DeBruce said. “I can understand why people would be dissuaded because even as a lawyer who is familiar with reading and interpreting documents, I thought it was a more difficult process than I thought it would be. And that was when no one else put in their names. Then there was not even an election, so I didn’t even have to go through that part of it.”
DeBruce calls herself a “councilmember by default.”
“This is a time more than ever that we really need to protect our island – the sanctuary, the small business community, not to mention the residents,” she stressed. “I think that we are accomplishing certain things, loosening some of the rules on a temporary basis so that people can get back to their homes more quickly and so small businesses and mom-and-pops can re-open. The most critical thing right now is all the condos. I think we’re at maybe 25 to 30 percent availability. So that’s a huge hurdle right now.”
DeBruce finds her legal expertise very helpful. “It was extremely helpful on the Planning Commission for me to be able to learn, interpret, and understand the Land Development Code, and to help craft what had to be changed,” she said. “Similarly, on City Council, it helps when dealing with legislation and how to write it and how to make sure that what people say they want to do is what actually happens.”
As a huge animal lover, DeBruce loves that the Sanibel Plan tells us to live in harmony with nature and with wildlife.
“I am constantly aware of needing to keep in mind that first and foremost, this is a sanctuary island. It is always a matter of balancing that protection for the environment with the need for small businesses to be able to operate and thrive on the island. And I emphasize the small business element, because one of the things that makes us unique are the mom-and-pop shops. We have rules about formula retail and formula restaurants, and I think those are really important to preserve Sanibel as a beautiful, unique small town,” she said.
DeBruce is feeling very optimistic about the future of the island. “We’re rebuilding,” she said. “When I meet families, whether they’re young with kids or older people who have just decided to move here since the storm, that makes me feel very optimistic. The island is regenerating. We can grow back more resiliently, and we will. We will be better able to sustain the next storm and more of us will be able to be back sooner.”
Since the storm, DeBruce has been working on a film about Sanibel’s recovery from the hurricane and hopes to complete it by September 28, 2024. “I hope to be finished and do a screening on the island,” she said. “I am both excited and really nervous about it, because I want to do right by Sanibel. For all of us, it was such a distressing and difficult and emotional time. This is my passion project.”
DeBruce explains that one of the first things she did when she got back to the island, like so many people, was rent bicycles and go to her house. She fell off the bike and fractured her arm, putting her in a cast for months. “So the time that all of us wanted to do nothing but clean and work and haul things to the curb, I couldn’t,” she explained.
So she took video. Soon, other people shared their videos and stories. The film will not be so much about the hurricane but will focus on Sanibel’s resilience and response to it. She filmed over the whole first year, finishing with the one-year anniversary event.
DeBruce also served on the board of directors of the Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation and still serves on the board of the Island Water Association.
Will she run for City Council when her term ends? She said she has to think about it. “I like the fact that there are so many people interested in running for different offices,” DeBruce said. “That’s a good thing. It is a very engaged community.”
This is a really interesting and informative article, thank you. Little did I know how qualified and well-equipped Laura is, not to mention how lucky we Sanibelians are to have someone with her background and qualifications to serve as a Councilmember! Now, more than ever, we need accomplished, committed and involved people like Laura on our City Council. I for one hope she runs when her current term ends.