Loxahatchee Groves · It was perhaps one of the only candidate forums ever where both the moderator and the timekeeper were naked.

Despite the flesh on display at the Sunsport Gardens Family Naturist Resort forum Thursday night, the Town Council candidates mostly managed to stick to the issues and avoid pointing out that the emperor really had no clothes.

There was plenty of skin to be seen. Naked and half-naked men and women surrounded the pool deck and played a lively game of pétanque, a French version of boccie ball, before the forum started. Kids swam in the pool, which is for nude bathers only.

The event at the 42-year-old resort attracted about 100 spectators, about half from outside the nudist resort, according to residents. About 30 people were either naked or topless.

The rare, innocent mix of skin and politics also drew five media photographers, two television news crews and a couple of newspaper columnists.

Morley Schloss, Sunsport's owner and the forum's moderator, asked whether anyone minded having their photo taken. No one did.

There were the usual Loxahatchee Groves concerns about how to handle code enforcement, nursery regulation and water safety in the new town, which voted for incorporation in October. But there were Sunsport-specific issues too, including questions about the rowdy teenagers on ATVs and environmental preservation. The latter is an important matter for a resort that prides itself on its native planting, solar panels and exotics removal program.

At least one audience member drew attention to nudist issues.

"What are your feelings about making Loxahatchee Groves clothing-optional?" asked Sunsport resident and employee Ted Apelt, while standing naked in the back of the room.

He got a lot of laughs but no answer. None of the council candidates would touch that one.

But most Sunsport residents felt that as voters they were no different from their clothed counterparts.

"I have a life outside here, but this is home. I'm concerned about the issues like anyone else," said Greg Welch while standing naked outside the forum. "My lifestyle has nothing to do with who I am as a person."

The forum was the third of four for the Town Council election and the first ever for Sunsport. Only one of the 10 candidates, Toni Vorsteg, threw in the towel, saying she feared a visit to the nudist resort would violate a moral oath she signed with the Catholic Church when she began teaching catechism. She also said she didn't feel comfortable bringing two of her children, ages 10 and 18, to the resort. She has taken them to the other candidate forums.

Sunsport had a nameplate for her on the candidates' table, and Vorsteg's campaign manager Don Brown watched from outside the screened-in hall.

"Her objections don't have anything to do with the people here," he said. "She asked herself, `Is it suitable to bring my 10-year-old son?' Her answer was no."

But some of the residents still felt rebuffed by Vorsteg.

"If this had been a homosexual community she never would have done that. It would have been political suicide," said Frank Reamer, a Sunsport resident with four children and a grandchild living at the resort. "But we're such a small community it doesn't matter."

Stephanie Horvath can be reached at smhorvath@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6643.