News

By Jane Smith

    The Delray Beach City Commission did not violate its charter by declining to hold a special election to fill a vacant commission seat, a circuit judge ruled from the bench in January.
    At the hearing, City Attorney Max Lohman argued that 60 days had not passed since the last failed vote to fill the commission seat. Vice Mayor Al Jacquet resigned from the commission on Nov. 8 after his election to the state House.
    The city had two regular commission meetings to try to fill that seat temporarily until the March 14 election, Lohman said. The clock started ticking on Dec. 7, giving the city a Feb. 4 deadline. The lawsuit was filed too soon, the city attorney argued. The judge agreed.
    After the hearing, J. Reeve Bright said he might refile his lawsuit on Feb. 5. Two weeks later, Bright said he would not do so. He said he didn’t think the special election could be held, giving the 30 days’ notice required by the city charter.
    “It’s discouraging,” said Bright, who lives on the barrier island.
    First, he had to prove that he has “standing” to bring the lawsuit against the city and its commissioners. He showed a copy of his voter’s registration card to prove he was entitled to relief. The judge agreed.
    The commission already had lost the respect of some residents when it failed to fill the seat temporarily.
    “Nobody was picked, not that I wasn’t picked,” Yvonne Odom said at the Jan. 10 commission meeting. She was the choice of Mayor Cary Glickstein and Vice Mayor Jordana Jarjura. “But 2-2 is not good for anybody. [The tie] means no.”
    Ten people applied to fill the seat vacated by Jacquet, a Haitian-American. Two minority candidates were selected in mid-November.
    “For the optics on the board, we need a minority,” Glickstein said in November when explaining why he voted for Odom. A longtime resident and retired educator, she is still involved with youth sports teams. He said she was “dedicated to this town.”
    The other minority candidate, Josh Smith, was supported by Commissioner Mitch Katz. Also a longtime resident, Smith is a retired teacher, administrator and coach. He ran unsuccessfully for office in 2015, when his signs and the mayor’s dominated the landscape. “He knows this community like the back of his hand,” said Katz, who won that seat.
    Odom had the backing of the Northwest/Southwest residents, who wore yellow apparel, her favorite color, to commission meetings to show their support.
    Smith never spoke publicly at the commission meetings. He did file for the seat now held by Vice Mayor Jarjura.
    At the Jan. 10 commission meeting, Odom said: “I’d like to thank those who spoke on my behalf in being appointed to that seat. Of course, I was very disappointed.
    “I’m in mourning,” she said. “We need to put a black sheet, towel or something on that seat until it’s filled.”
    At the end of January, she still was not happy.
    “The commission did not follow the will of the people and the city charter,” she said.
    She said one good result came out of the commission’s inability to agree: “It united the community to get more involved in the local races.”