News

By Steve Plunkett

    The longtime attorney for the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District will soon shed his role as the district’s contract administrator.
    “Possibly around the first of November, I will be able to come to you with a recommendation that, since we’re going to have some additional capital projects under construction, that we will be able to retain the services of a qualified individual to take over the contract administration,” Arthur Koski told beach and park commissioners Sept. 6.
    Koski, who also is the district’s interim executive director, said he had been looking for someone to replace him as contract administrator for six months.
    “When I come forward with that, you’ll understand why it’ll be at that particular time,” he said.
    Koski earns $108,000 a year as the district’s contract administrator, overseeing such projects as the construction of athletic fields at De Hoernle Park and a new community center at the Swim and Racquet Center on St. Andrews Boulevard. He took the job in 2010.
    He became the district’s interim executive director in July 2012 when Robert Langford retired. But his additional role drew complaints from city officials, culminating in March with City Council member Robert Weinroth’s demand that he be replaced with a full-time person.
    In May, Koski said he would step aside as interim director on Oct. 1, the start of the new budget year, but was persuaded to stay until January, when commissioners choose their chairman for the calendar year.
    Koski started giving the Beach and Park District legal advice in 1978 and is paid $132,000 a year for it. He is paid $90,000 a year for being interim director.
    His total district paycheck — $330,000 a year — dwarfed Boca Raton City Manager Leif Ahnell’s $240,418, though Ahnell also receives a pension and other benefits that Koski does not. Koski earned a cumulative $1.5 million over the past five years from his three district positions. He also has a private law practice downtown.
    Koski said in August the contract administration work is “something that I enjoy very much” and that he hoped beach and park commissioners would keep him on the job in 2017.