Megan Mulry’s A Royal Pain will be in
bookstores Nov. 1.  Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star 

 By Ron Hayes  

“What can I do while the kids are in school?”
Some women learn to play tennis. Some take up yoga.
Megan Mulry tackled a royal romance.
Her family was settled in their coastal Delray Beach home. Her husband had a successful career as a private investor. Helen, 12, and Jeb, 5, were happily enrolled in the Gulf Stream School.
“So I decided to try writing a contemporary Regency romance,” Mulry recalls. “I started researching dukes.”
She began writing in September 2010, sent a synopsis to 14 agents three months later and had a publishing contract with Sourcebooks by June 2011.
“I burst into tears when I opened the box of advance copies,” she says.
The title changed along the way.
How To Deal With A Duke became Royal Strings Attached, and then Earl Meets Girl.

You can find A Royal Pain in bookstores beginning Nov. 1.
“I want people to have an hour or two on the beach and enjoy it,” Mulry says, “and I’m thrilled that people will pay me to do it.”
What you’ll find in that hour or two is a modern Cinderella story told with a lot less Disney and a little more sex.
Bronte Talbott, a young Chicagoan newly embarked on a successful career in advertising, is recovering from her breakup with a twangy Texas boyfriend when she meets a British doctoral student named Max Heyworth in the science fiction section of a used bookstore.
Who is Max Heyworth? Ah hah! None other than Maxwell Fitzwilliam-Heyworth, next in line to become the 19th Duke of Northrop.

Yes, there’s a happy ending, eventually. This is a romance novel, after all. What’s surprising is how well-written it is.
    Megan Mulry is not the sort of woman people who don’t read romance novels expect to be writing romance novels.
She has a degree in Victorian literature from Northwestern University and knows her Dickens, Trollope and Thackeray. She was Tina Brown’s assistant at The New Yorker, and the lifestyle editor at Boston magazine. She’s lived in London, working in finance.
“I’ve read serious literature,” she says, “but everybody dies in the end. With romance novels, I love the pace, the happy endings, the joyfulness. They’re life-affirming, and so entertaining. You’re reading like candy, but you’re getting a well-researched historical novel.”
The early critics seem to agree. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly calls A Royal Pain “a delightful love story ... worth reading again and again.”
Booklist finds that “the very human characters keep the plot fresh, funny, and engaging, with Mulry’s lavish descriptions of fashion an added bonus.”
Closer to home, her family is supportive, but cautious.
“I don’t think I’m your target audience,” Mulry’s husband, Jeff Huisinga, told her.
“Is it appropriate for me?” her daughter wondered.
“In a couple of years,” her mother decreed.
Romance isn’t what it used to be, after all, and neither are romance novels:
The first kiss he had been anticipating for the past four hours, the past six weeks. The kiss he could no longer delay. His tongue trailed tentatively across the seam of her inviting lips, then ventured into the warm welcome of her luscious mouth.
Bronte simply gave in. Her eyelids became unaccountably heavy and she emitted an unconscious mewl of pleasure ...
It goes uphill from there.

“Yes, there are some sexy parts,” Mulry promises. “The cutoff is four sex scenes. After that, it’s called erotic romance.”
Her novel has three. However, you may want to turn up the A/C before reading them.
In the meantime, the Dutch and Spanish rights have been sold, and Mulry has a three-book contract.
“I try to write Monday through Friday, 2,000 words a day,” she says. “In 50 days, you’ve got 100,000 words.”
She’s already finished six novels, one that follows the duke’s younger brother, a second his sister.
“This is not Fifty Shades of Gray,” she says with a laugh. “But I’d like 30 million readers.”                       

For more information, visit www.meganmulry.com.

Director Amy London gives instruction to Hannah Joyce, 13,
of Ocean Ridge, at The Plaza Theatre in Manalapan. London is
leading the students in Frank Loesser’s 1961 musical How to
Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.  Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

    “I first knew I wanted to do this when I was 5,” Hannah Joyce remembers. “I did sports, I did gymnastics, but acting is how I let people see the real me.”
   The Ocean Ridge teen was 5 when she appeared in the chorus of Scrooge at the Delray Beach Playhouse. She’s 13 now, and people can see the real her in November, when the new Plaza Theatre’s Performing Arts Conservatory presents the musical comedy How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying.

But first, a lot of hard work.

On Sept. 5, she auditioned, singing Tomorrow, from Annie, and performing a monologue from The Wizard of Oz.

On Sept. 12, she learned she’d been accepted to the program.

And one week later she’s back again, seated along with about 25 other young acting students in the theater’s Plaza Del Mar auditorium, listening as director Amy London prepares them for a read-through of the script.

“The dance numbers are going to be complicated,” London tells them. “We’re not doing a little kids show here. We’re doing a big kids show.”

Hannah has done little kids shows, and so have several of her fellow students. What she wants now is a big kids show, and that’s what the nonprofit Plaza Theatre promises the area’s young actors.

Jacobson

Its founders are Palm Beach Gardens residents Alan and Melissa Boher Jacobson. He ran the Florida Jewish Theatre in the 1990s, then produced a series of cabaret shows and revues. 

She’s a veteran acting and voice coach, and the theater’s director of education.

The theater opened in February in the space where the bankrupt Florida Stage spent 19 years.

But where the earlier theater prided itself on offering new and often experimental productions, the nonprofit Plaza Theatre is betting on light musical revues and buoyant comedies priced at $35-$45 a ticket.
First came My Musical Comedy Life, Broadway star Donna McKechnie’s one-woman show, followed by revues celebrating Neil Sedaka, Barry Manilow and Irving Berlin.
Upcoming productions for adults include Driving Miss Daisy and Chapter Two.
The children’s conservatory has already done Grease and All Shook Up, an Elvis Presley show. And now How To Succeed.
The conservatory’s tuition fee is $375 and auditions are required.
“But our policy is that anyone who auditions who really wants to participate will be given a part,” Boher Jacobson says. “Classes are limited to 12 students with no more than 35 in the productions, and every student gets a minimum of one hour of private instruction.”
Hannah’s  mother, Hayley Joyce, is enthusiastic.
“Once I’d talked to Melissa, my decision was made,” she says. “These kids are different, and to have this place where they feel normal because they’re with other kids who are creative is wonderful. They walk to a different drummer, and if nothing else, they leave with an ability to talk in public and a sense of self-confidence.”
For Max Maldonado, 16, How To Succeed In Business will mark his third appearance in a conservatory production. He played Vince Fontaine in Grease, and the cross-dressing role of Mayor Matilda in All Shook Up.
“I’ve always loved acting,” he says, “ever since I did a Christmas play in fifth grade. I always loved to impersonate the book or cartoon characters I read about.”

Now he has three parts to learn for the current production.
On this night, though, he and Hannah and their fellow thespians will read the play together, get measured for costumes and as their director sets the stage all the work ahead.
“I promise you a good time,” Amy London says. “I promise you hard work. I promise you a good show. Just let me see you’re trying.”
And Hannah Joyce, who has just been told she’ll play Lily in the production, a part with plenty of singing and dancing, is smiling.   
“When I came here,” she says, “I felt at home.”          

The Plaza Theatre Conservatory’s production of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying will be presented at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 20 and 3 p.m. on Nov. 21. For more information, call (561) 588-1820 or visit www.theplazatheatre. net.                                 

Janet and Jack Zurell enjoy a spin in their golf
cart in Briny Breezes.  Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

    He made sure there were movies and she reported the news — along with a dollop of wit and inspiration.
Briny Breezes residents since 1990, Jack and Janet Zurell have been among the most dedicated volunteers at BBC-8, the park’s own closed circuit TV station.
    Every night at 8, with a matinee Sundays at 2 p.m., Jack chose and programmed the station’s movies. Janet was there either late at night or early each morning, updating community news on the BBC-8 scroll and adding a pithy one-liner or two.
Love your enemies. At least they never try to borrow money from you.
There’s a thin person inside every fat person. I ate mine.
Now, after 11 years on the job, they’ve retired.
“I’m having trouble getting around,” says Jack, “so it’s become more difficult for me to program the movies.”
“And I feel stale,” adds Janet, who also served on the mobile home park’s board for eight years. “ Just feel somebody younger would have new ideas.”
“I did it because I loved it,” she says, “and it was important for the people to get the news first thing each morning.”

— Ron Hayes

Q. Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you?
Jack: I went to the same school in Mount Morris, Mich,, from kindergarten through high school. We had 70 in our graduating class, and my mother taught there, so I had to really behave and study hard

Janet: Flint High School. It was a big school and interracial, which gave me a broader scope on how to deal with people.

Q. What did you do professionally before retirement?  Any highlights you’d like to share?
Jack: After graduating from Michigan State, I became a certified public account and worked for O.L. Anderson in Detroit, which manufactured fuel tanks for the automotive industry. Later, I was parts manager.

Janet: I raised three children and also worked full-time as a bookkeeper, a Girl Friday to an interior decorator and a church secretary. When the children were older, I was a Cub Scouts and Brownies master and a youth counselor in our Methodist church.

Q. What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?
Jack: Get a skill. You must have a technical education.

Janet: I would tell my granddaughter to get a good education or else find a really old rich guy and marry him. (She’s joking here, folks).

Q. What guided your selection of quotations and movies on the BBC-8?

Jack: I always tried for variety. A drama, then a comedy, a thriller, an adventure and a classic. Plus everyone’s recommendations.
Janet: I wanted one-liners that were uplifting and humorous. And nonpolitical. I wanted to give Briny Breezes brightness and happiness and cheer.

Q. How did you choose to have a home in Briny Breezes?
Jack: My brother had lived here since 1964. After I retired, we looked at Tucson and Phoenix and South Padre Island, but March of 1990 we were coming to see my brother and when we left Georgia into Florida we saw the lush flowers and thought, “That’s he kind of winter you like to see.”

Q. What is your favorite part about living in Briny?  

Jack: The weather.
Janet: And the people.

Q. Do you have a favorite quote that inspires your decisions? 

Jack: “Jack, will you get me this.” (Now he’s joking, folks).
Janet: “I can do all things through Christ that strengthen me.”

Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?

Janet: My mother, Esther Doe. She lived with us for 37 years and died at 98 and a half.
Jack: She was an old German woman who believed the man of the house was king, so in 37 years I never had an argument with her.

Q. If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?

Jack: Mickey Rooney.

Janet: Sandra Bullock.

Q. What’s next now that you’ve retired from BBC-8?

Janet: I’d like to join the hobby club, and maybe start a beginners knitting class. Oh, and I’ve always wanted to peel potatoes for the community dinners.

Jack: My wife’s an a-peeling person.”

 Mary Thurwachter aboard the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile when she was editor of the News Journal. Photo by Paul Milette

By Mary Thurwachter

I was the editor of the Delray Beach/Boynton Beach News Journal the day it perished on Nov. 20, 1986.

Overseeing paste-up of the paper in the West Palm Beach offices of The Palm Beach Post, I watched as an editor from The Post directed a woman with an X-Acto knife to remove the story across the top of the front page and replace it with another with this headline: “‘News Journal’ to cease publication after today’s edition.”

That was pretty much how I found out the little weekly newspaper I had come to love would no longer be part of my world.

Tears were shed. The NJ was dead. Stop the presses!

It’s so sad when a newspaper dies. It really is. 

I had been part of the 64-year-old publication for only a short two years, but they were happy years. 

My colleagues were like family, and we frequently walked from the newspaper office at Northeast Fourth Avenue (a lawyer’s office today) to the Green Owl for lunch. 

Ronald Reagan was president, Doak Campbell was Delray’s mayor, and Charles Kilgore was the police chief. 

Delray Beach had observed its diamond jubilee that year, and co-chairwomen of the 75th anniversary celebration were local jeweler Barbara Smith and Mary McCarty, before she became a county commissioner.

I never knew what sad or silly news would come my way. One slow news day, a 22-foot hot dog rolled up to the News-Journal. Ah, yes, the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile was in town, and I got to drive it, if only for a few yards. My family, back in Wisconsin — home of the Wienermobile — got quite a kick out of the story and accompanying photograph. 

The Sundy House, once home to Delray Beach’s first mayor, John Sundy, hadn’t been transformed into a restaurant and inn yet.

Atlantic Plaza rose up around an old banyan tree next to the Intracoastal Waterway in 1985, and low interest rates and a housing glut produced by overzealous builders had created a buyer’s market.

During my inaugural year (1984) at the paper, the Holiday Inn (now the Marriott) opened at A1A and Atlantic Avenue. 

It was the place to go for happy hour and the spot where my friends and I got together to toast my promotion to editor. 

That evening, I met my husband, although it took another 15 years before we tied the knot. You can’t rush these things, you know. Good news is worth the wait.                 

Mary Thurwachter is a freelance writer and the managing editor of the Boca Raton/Highland Beach edition of The Coastal Star.

Shoeman

By Tim O’Meilia

Briny Breezes last month hired its third deputy town clerk in 15 months following the forced resignation of Cindy Corum after nine months on the job. 

Town Clerk pro tem Nancy Boczon, also an alderman, promised Corum the $2,500 in severance pay called for in her contract if she resigned her part-time position immediately without forcing a vote of the Town Council.

“We had great disharmony in the building,” Boczon said after the Sept. 27 Town Council meeting, saying several talks with Corum did not improve the atmosphere. She declined to elaborate.

Town Attorney Jerome Skrandel said Corum’s discussion with at least one audit firm in the running for a three-year contract with the town has forced Briny Breezes to restart the entire process. 

“She overstepped her bounds,” Skrandel said. “We’re being very prudent to make sure we’re operating properly. This way we have no harm, no foul.”

In an email to Mayor Roger Bennett, Corum said she told the town’s current auditor, Alberni Caballero and Co. of Coral Gables, that the council was seeking a reduction in the $11,000 annual fee the town was paying. She said the conversation occurred before the town decided to seek proposals. She said she was trying to save the town money.

The town has received four proposals but has not opened the fee bids. Skrandel said they will be returned unopened to the firms. 

Skrandel proposed a new evaluation scorecard for the three-member audit committee to grade the proposals, adding a category for fees which was not in the previous evaluation sheet. 

In her email, Corum said Boczon micromanaged her work and she was discouraged from communicating with the newly contracted town bookkeeper. Previous deputy clerks handled the bookkeeping.

Lesa Shoeman, the daughter of bookkeeper Linda Harvel, was hired by Boczon to replace Corum on an interim basis. Her contract is expected to be approved by the council in October.

Boczon said Shoeman was one of two applicants who responded to a notice of the vacancy in a municipal clerks publication. 

Shoeman, 39, said she is a bookkeeper and payroll manager for several small businesses and previously ran a bookkeeping business in Palm Beach Gardens. 

“This position is really ideal for me,” she said of the two-day per week job. “With my two kids, I don’t want to work 40 hours a week.”

Although she lacks experience as a town clerk, Shoeman said she would pursue certification as a municipal clerk. Corum was previously town clerk in Loxahatchee Groves and her predecessor left to take a full-time town clerk position in Lake Park. 

In other business, the council approved a tax rate of $10 per each $1,000 of taxable property value, the maximum allowed by state law, by a 5-1 vote. Alderman Sue Thaler dissented. The council unanimously approved a $599,445 budget that is $1,720 less than this year’s, despite a 4 percent hike in the cost of fire-rescue service and a 5 percent increase in water and utility service, both provided through contracts with the city of Boynton Beach.                   Ú

By Tim Pallesen

The thrill in having a public golf course on the ocean isn’t measured by just dollars and cents. But the deficit to operate the Red Reef Golf Course in Boca Raton has been increasing in recent years. 

So much so, in fact, that the city of Boca Raton’s early estimate that the Boca Raton Beach and Park District might have to pay a $297,200 deficit this year sparked concern that the nine-hole oceanfront golf course might close.

The projected amount was a 64 percent increase over the deficit that district taxpayers were forced to pay five years ago.

The Beach and Park District was ready early August to pay for a study into how to reduce the red ink in Red Reef’s operating budget. The city owns the golf course but the district pays for its operation.

Now city officials are scrambling to reduce costs and increase revenue. The Beach and Park District will postpone its study until Boca Raton can determine the exact amount of this year’s deficit, district chairman Earl Starkoff said.

“The pressure on needing a study is off the table until we hear what the city’s plans are,” Starkoff said.

Starkoff denied a news report that members of the district commission might consider closing the golf course because of the increasing deficit.

“I’m not thrilled about deficits,” he said. “But we provide the golf course as a place for the community to gather just like parks. None of us is interested in closing the golf course.”

Starkoff said an annual deficit of $150,000 to $180,000 might receive the commission’s support.

Assistant City Manager Mike Woika said that amount might be possible.

“It will be a couple of months until we know exactly what the numbers are going to be,” Woika said on Aug. 21. “But it looks now that we will have a $167,500 deficit.”

“We have been doing some cost cutting at all our golf courses and we expect a little more revenue,” he said.

Savings in personnel might mean the grass isn’t cut as often. The city is exploring whether a private company could maintain the golf course for less money than city employees, Woika said.

Stackoff said Beach and Park District commissioners also want to hear the city’s marketing plans to increase the use of Red Reef Golf Course to generate more revenue.

“We market all our golf courses,” Woika responded. “Because Red Reef is an executive course, you don’t get as many rounds of golf as on a regular-distance
course.”                                  

Boca Raton Police have charged a city parks employee with voyeurism after learning that he had video recorded a woman and her 10-year-old daughter as they changed clothing in the bathroom at Red Reef Park.

A day after his Aug. 21 arrest, Boca Raton fired 27-year-old Douglas Hughes. Hughes had worked since March 9, 2009, in the city’s parks department, first as a part-time employee, and then as a full-time groundskeeper since November 2011. He was not assigned to Red Reef Park, and he was not working when the incident happened, said Mark Buckingham, director of human resources.

Officers met with the victim and her daughter Aug. 18. As they were changing in the women’s bathroom, her daughter saw a hand holding a white iPhone between the window slats, facing into the bathroom. 

The mother ran outside and saw a red Toyota back out of a nearby parking lot and drive away. She gave the tag number to officers. 

Hughes admitted recording the woman and her child, police said. He also said that he secretly recorded people on numerous occasions in Red Reef Park and Patch Reef Park, according to a police report. 

Hughes’ most recent assignment was as part of a ball field maintenance crew. But when he was a groundskeeper, he would have traveled in a golf cart, primarily at Sugar Sand Park and Patch Reef Park, Buckingham said.

City officials have no knowledge of incidents happening while Hughes was working, but the police still are investigating. Anyone with information about the current case or other incidents is asked to call Detective Ron Mello at (561) 620-6186. 

— Angie Francalancia

Town Manager Kathleen Weiser

By Steve Plunkett

The Highland Beach librarian says the town manager is “non-communicative” and has spurned invitations to meet with her or attend library staff meetings in her 18-month tenure.

Librarian Mari Suarez

The town manager, librarian Mari Suarez says, also called her incompetent and pulled her town credit cards for making an unauthorized purchase.

The dispute bubbled into the public eye when Suarez sent town commissioners a letter appealing for them to resolve her issues with Town Manager Kathleen Weiser.

The request fell on deaf ears.

“I hope I have the support of this commission to ask Mrs. Weiser to handle this situation without involving any of us on the Town Commission,” Commissioner Louis Stern said, joined quickly by Commissioner Dennis Sheridan.

Suarez’s letter detailed how her relationship with Weiser had soured. 

Last September, Suarez wrote, Weiser asked her to complete a self-evaluation for a salary increase “because Ms. Weiser said she did not yet know me well enough.”

In May, however, Weiser gave a written evaluation that said Suarez was spending too much time with the Friends of the Library organization.

“I believe that her criticism shows a lack of understanding of the Friends’ important role in supporting and funding library projects,” Suarez wrote, noting that the group provides $20,000 a year for programs and enhancements.

The flashpoint was when Suarez ordered a $500 “drop-in” shower for library worker Bertrand Desir, who also empties the town’s 25 trashcans three times a week. 

Desir “becomes rather soiled in performing his duties” especially when it rains and when animals get inside the black trash bags, Suarez wrote.

Suarez is permitted to make purchases under $500 without higher authorization, she said, but she was contacted while on vacation and told the shower needed Weiser’s and Finance Director Cale Curtis’ signatures because a plumber would have to be paid to install the apparatus.

Suarez said she ordered the shower returned but had a message from Weiser when she returned from vacation for a “discussion of unauthorized purchase.”

“It is the continued lack of communication that has caused this issue to be handled by Ms. Weiser in the manner that she did, which is basically to fire off a reprimand without so much as even calling when I submitted the receipt,” Suarez wrote. “This could have been avoided.” 

Dorothy Kellington, vice president of the Friends and a library volunteer, said the nonprofit group has “a wonderful relationship” with Suarez and depends on her to advise them of the library’s needs.

“It’s not like we work in a vacuum,” Kellington said. “If you don’t speak to people or spend any time, how can you work with them?”

Weiser did not want to comment on personnel matters in the media, but said the reprimand is a public record that will stay in Suarez’s file.

Suarez said besides regular staff meetings, “she hasn’t contacted me,” since commissioners told them to work out their issues.         

By Steve Plunkett

Advertising consultant Steven Engel (RIGHT) and real estate broker Tom Thayer (LEFT) will reappear on the Nov. 6 ballot in their quest to become a Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District commissioner.

To reach the runoff, Engel received 4,266 votes (47.6 percent) to Thayer’s 3,425 votes (38.2 percent), according to unofficial results at the county Supervisor of Elections Office. Real estate agent Felipe Martinez had 1,281 votes (14.3 percent).

Engel and Thayer were evenly matched, 2,446 to 2,363, among voters who went to the polls Aug. 14, the elections office said. But Engel built up leads from early voters, 488 to 300, and absentee voters, 1,327 to 759.

And 1,631 voters made no choice in the race, which appeared at the end of the primary ballot, the elections office said.

The seat, which is open only to Beach and Park District residents who live outside the city, became open when Commissioner Dirk Smith resigned at the start of the year.

Thayer, a 34-year resident, moved from his home on the Intracoastal Waterway to a condo he owns in Boca West to be eligible to run. Engel, who has lived in the district 3½ years, rents a townhouse in Boca Del Mar.                  

By Steve Plunkett

Renovations to Town Hall will wait at least a year following Police Chief Craig Hartmann’s decision to pull the $825,000 project from the proposed 2013 budget.

By then, however, voters may not have the power to approve or deny the expense.

“Though this [renovation] is still an important priority for us, it is more important for the fiscal health of the town to address the ongoing deficit to the town operating budget,” Hartmann wrote in an Aug. 13 memo to Town Manager Kathleen Weiser.

“Hopefully in future budget years funding will be available to complete this needed project.”

At a workshop the week before, Commissioner Louis Stern asked for budget changes to avoid using the town’s reserves. Weiser’s original proposal balanced operating expenses with property taxes while taking $1 million in reserves for the Town Hall work, repairs to the town’s walk path and increased code enforcement.

The town used $710,000 from its reserves this year to pay mostly for operating expenses.

The Financial Advisory Board urged commissioners to set a tax rate that would not use savings for day-to-day expenses.

 “I know that there’s no way we cannot raise taxes somewhat, but I think we have to take into account that we would like to not use any, if possible, of our funds from the surplus funds,” Stern said.

During the Aug. 21 budget workshop, the commission agreed on a tax rate of $3.95 per $1,000 in taxable property for 2012-’13 (up from this year’s $3.40.) No money will need to come from reserves and no services or personnel will need to be cut. 

Commissioners discussed money-saving proposals, including cutting back hours at the library, post office and town hall, as well as reducing personnel, but none of the suggestions won support.

The commission room was filled with residents who spoke in support of the library.

“We have an outstanding facility stocked with the latest books, CDs and movies,” said resident Mike Stein. “We have an active Friends of the Library and run outstanding programs. Our residents use our facilities as a community room for cards, exercise, teaching and conversation. It is an invaluable asset that enhances our reputation, improves our property values and serves as the center of our community for intellectual and social pursuits.”

Stein, and others who sung the library’s praises, were met with applause.

“What I got from you today is ‘don’t touch the library, don’t touch services and don’t touch personnel.’” said Vice Mayor Ron Brown. “We don’t want our town going down a road that’s worse and worse.”

At an earlier meeting, commissioners approved on first reading ordinances to drop the need for voter approval of big-ticket items and to drop Highland Beach’s requirement that property taxes be no more than $5 per $1,000 of taxable value. Florida law limits local taxes to $10 per $1,000.

Both ordinances, which will come up for final approval Sept. 4, are changes to the town charter.

“This is the only community around here who has any language regarding spending at referendum whatsoever. You go up and down this coast, this language does not exist,” Ron Clark, who chaired the Charter Review Board, had told commissioners.

Currently any project costing $350,000 or more needs voter approval in a referendum. The charter committee recommended raising the trigger to 10 percent of the operating budget, this year roughly $1 million, with a commission majority needed for projects up to 7 percent and a supermajority, 4-1 vote, required for projects between 7 percent and 10 percent.

In 2010 voters rejected spending $810,000 for a new fire truck to replace the current hook-and-ladder. 

Stern proposed dropping the spending limits entirely: He was joined by Brown and Commissioner Dennis Sheridan in a 3-2 vote.

The vote to drop limits on the town’s tax rate was 4-1 with Mayor Bernard Featherman dissenting.

Weiser said she and Delray Beach Fire-Rescue Chief Danielle Connors expect to ask the town to buy a fire truck in two years. The cost has increased to $850,000, she said. Highland Beach could buy the fire truck outright or pay $130,000 for seven years to finance it.                                   

Highland Beach

Current tax rate: $3.40 per $1,000 of taxable property

Proposed tax rate: $3.95

Public hearings: 5:01 p.m. Sept. 7 and 20

By Tim Pallesen

Boca Raton has begun talks with fire and police unions about the possibility of reducing the rising cost of pension benefits. “This will be one of our top priorities for the next fiscal year,” City Manager Leif Ahnell told council members at an Aug. 27 budget workshop.

“We have begun to have conversations.” Discussions about the proposed Lake Wyman restoration also have resumed as the council this month finalizes its operating budget and property tax rate. Pension talks could lead to significant savings for taxpayers in years ahead. Cities and counties across Florida are renegotiating the pension benefits that they promised firefighters and police officers before the economic downturn, which caused a dramatic drop in property values and tax revenue.

Palm Beach, the first town in Palm Beach County to act, saved $6.6 million this year. The savings increases to $10.2 million in 2020. Boca Raton’s cost for firefighter pensions will increase by $1.6 million this year. The cost for police pensions is up $1 million. The two costs are the largest increases in the proposed city budget. “I don’t want to see our city ending up bankrupt,” resident Charles Helton told council members at the Aug. 27 workshop.

A taxpayers group, Boca Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility, is urging the city manager to develop a plan within 90 days to reduce firefighter pensions. The group also wants to reduce the number of firefighters to save money. Pension contracts couldn’t be renegotiated with fire and police unions quickly enough to prevent a projected 10.5 percent increase in Boca Raton taxes this year.

Ahnell is proposing that property owners pay $3.66 per $1,000 of taxable property, up 4.3 percent from this year’s $3.51 rate. His proposed budget includes $250,000 for security at the presidential debate at Lynn University in October and $140,000 to increase hours at Spanish River Park.

To raise revenue, Ahnell also proposes a $5 increase in the fire fee to $85 per year for a residential property owner. The sanitation fee would increase from $16 to $16.50 per month. But the council has tentatively raised the proposed tax rate to $3.83 per $1,000 of taxable property to possibly pay for more projects.

It will set the final rate after 6 p.m. public hearings on Sept. 12 and Sept. 27. Still uncertain is whether the city will include $250,000 in the budget as its share of the $2.6 million Lake Wyman restoration project. The Florida Inland Navigation District would pay $2.1 million for the project and the Boca Raton Beach and Park District agreed in June to contribute another $225,000. But the City Council balked at joining the partnership after FIND set a September deadline to make a decision.

Council members say they have questions such as who will pay for an environmental study. Mayor Susan Whelchel said FIND now has pushed back the September deadline because Boca Raton has resumed talks with county environmental managers over whether to contribute its $250,000.

“We have a little more time to solve that problem than we thought we had,” Whelchel said. “It’s in play again.” The project would reopen Rutherford Park’s silted-in canoe trail to increase mangrove flushing and make the trail passable at low tide. An observation tower would be built and a boardwalk would be extended to picnic and beach areas. 

Boca Raton

Current tax rate: $3.51* per $1,000 of taxable property

Proposed tax rate: $3.83*

Public hearings: 6 p.m. Sept. 12 and 27

*Residents pay a proposed $85 fire assessment and are also taxed by the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District.                                                                                            That proposed rate for this upcoming year would drop from $1.01 to $1. The discussion of this rate will happen at 5:15 p.m. on Sept. 10 at Sugar Sand Park.

Former Mayor Ken Kaleel

By Margie Plunkett

Former Mayor Ken Kaleel’s study of Ocean Ridge’s possible switch to the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office for police services was cut short after the town’s attorney raised the issue of potential Sunshine Law violations.

“The question is whether he’s doing this on behalf of the commission,” Attorney Ken Spillias said. Sunshine laws require lawmakers to do their work in public view.

“If you are expecting a recommendation or removing some options or suggesting some options — there are Sunshine Law implications,” he told commissioners at their August meeting. “In reading the minutes, you were asking for him to gather information, but it also used the word ‘recommendation.’ ”

Kaleel said he was acting as a citizen when he offered to help, adding, “I was going to give you the pros and cons and let you decide.” He said he didn’t want a part of being subject to having to conduct special meetings in a formal capacity.

“Because it’s a big decision, and in some ways an emotional decision, you all will be under more scrutiny,” Spillias told commissioners. “I think it’s important to not even approach the line.”

Town Manager Ken Schenck

Commissioners backed off Kaleel’s participation and directed Town Manager Ken Schenck to conduct the analysis after his current work on the budget has been completed. Commissioners are expected to vote on the budget in September.

Kaleel had been analyzing what services the town would seek from the Sheriff’s Office and alternatives. He had collected information in discussions with several other people and had anticipated reporting back to commissioners in August or this month. He said at the August meeting he did not yet have a report.

Commissioners selected him to conduct the study after Zoanne Hennigan questioned whether Schenck or Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi could collect information comprehensively and without bias.

The former mayor first suggested asking how much  the sheriff would charge to patrol Ocean Ridge while he was still in office. Kaleel’s term  as  mayor expired in March after he decided not to seek   re-election                             

By Tim O’Meilia

A 45-day-old effort to step up patrols by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in the two county parks in Ocean Ridge has been a success so far, Police Chief Chris Yannuzzi said last week.

The Sheriff’s Office added up to 400 patrols each in Ocean Inlet and Ocean Ridge Hammock parks in Ocean Ridge and Gulfstream Park in Gulf Stream since Yannuzzi formally requested more attention on the areas in late June.  

Crime has risen in the two county-owned parks in Ocean Ridge since budget cuts prompted the Sheriff’s Office to discontinue a permanent park ranger station at Ocean Inlet Park last year. 

Calls to the inlet park included two armed robberies and two sexual assaults.

The Sheriff’s Office began an “extra patrol” protocol in each park in which a computer-generated dispatch periodically sends a Sheriff’s car to the parks as if it were a normally dispatch call for service. 

“We’re very happy they’ve stepped up their patrols. There’s been a very positive response and a clear sense of cooperation among all the entities involved,” Yannuzzi said, referring to the Sheriff’s Office, Manalapan, Ocean Ridge and other agencies. 

Crime statistics for the July 1 to Aug. 15 period were not immediately available from the Sheriff’s Office, but Yannuzzi said there were no violent crimes, although he noted it was a short time frame. 

Not all the extra patrols are done by sheriff’s deputies. Civilian volunteers, community service aides and other marked police cars also are used on the patrols. 

“I really think any physical police presence is beneficial, no matter what color the car is, green or blue,” Yannuzzi said. 

Concern over crime at the inlet park prompted former Ocean Ridge Mayor Ken Kaleel to urge the Town Commission to ask the county to close the county parks in Ocean Ridge at night until the Sheriff’s Office has the manpower to resume full patrols. 

Parts of the park in Manalapan and Ocean Ridge close at sunset, but boat slips, the jetty and some parking remain open 24 hours a day for fishermen and boaters. “It’s starting to be a problem,” Kaleel told commissioners in August. 

Yannuzzi asked that approval of a request closing the park be postponed until the results of the extra patrols are apparent.

As for how long the increased vigilance would last, Yannuzzi said, “There’s no time frame for sunsetting the extra patrols.” A response to questions of the Sheriff’s Office was not available at press time. 

The Sheriff’s Office has agreed to provide increased attention at the inlet park during the Labor Day weekend, Yannuzzi said.

“There will be added patrols by three agencies, to include marked and unmarked units, ATVs, boats, civilian community service aides and parking enforcement specialists/volunteers.  This is similar to what occurred for the July Fourth holiday and it was quite adequate,” he said.

During the July 4-8 period, one arrest was made for an open container violation, 11 traffic and 17 parking tickets were issued and several other injuries and incidents attended to — including reports of a missing swimmer, an attempted suicide and an indecent exposure, according to sheriff’s statistics.                                       Ú

Margie Plunkett contributed to this report.

By Tim O’Meilia

Former South Palm Beach Mayor Martin Millar’s claim that he was threatened by Police Chief Roger Crane was dismissed as unfounded by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.

Millar claimed that Crane approached him aggressively during a conversation at the Plaza del Mar in Manalapan July 11 and that he feared for his life. 

“Statements from independent witnesses do not support this contention … As such, this case is unfounded,” concluded Sheriff’s Det. Andrew Richter in a report filed Aug. 2.

Richter interviewed a jewelry story employee and Manalapan Police Chief Carmen Mattox, who both saw the conversation. 

“That’s Mr. Millar,” Crane said after the complaint was dismissed. “I should never have waved to him or acknowledged him when he spoke to me.”

Millar said he was trying to retrieve personal property, including a registered gun, which his former wife had left for him at the South Palm Beach police station.

“I got what I wanted,” Millar said of the investigation. “[Crane] said he stepped forward. What I should have done is stand my ground and he would have struck me.”

Richter concluded there were no verbal threats made during the conversation.   Ú 

By Margie Plunkett

Waste Management retained its contract with Delray Beach in a 3-2 commission vote that allows renewal for the trash disposal company, rather than putting the contract out to bid.

Commissioners made their choice at an August meeting in which they also decided not to allow further public comment beyond that already collected at meetings, online and via email over the last few months.

Out-voted commissioners wanted the garbage contract molded by forces of competition, contending that a pool of bidders would ensure the best possible value for what was called “arguably the largest contract in Delray Beach.” 

“Let it go to bid. Competition will bring out the best in us,” Commissioner Al Jacquet said. “Our country was founded on this.” He and Commissioner Tom Carney both praised Waste Management’s service even while supporting bidding out the contract.

The victors justified renewing the Waste Management contract based on its many years of outstanding service, corporate partnership with the community and giving Delray Beach “some of the lowest prices in the county.”

“I can’t ignore a company that has put their shoulder to the wheel and done what they said they were going to do — and have been the wonderful corporate citizen that we never asked them to be,” Mayor Woodie McDuffie said. “I can’t take a contract away from someone who’s done this job.”

Waste Management representative Butch Carter reminded commissioners that the company had proposed to give the city $750,000 worth of solar-powered compactors in exchange for the renewal of its franchise, which expires in September 2013.

Commissioner Angeleta Gray asked Delray Beach staff to look into whether there are other ways that the money being spent on compactors could better assist the city. 

Carter added that Waste Management’s community involvement was exemplary — and not required — including sponsorships of events such as the Garlic Festival and Fourth of July festivities. Waste Management has chosen to support the community because it’s a good corporate partner, he said.

Waste Management also charges Delray a competitive price, Carter said, explaining that if Waste Management used the rate structure in Delray Beach that it or its competitors have in surrounding cities, “Waste Management would make a lot more money than it does today.”

A comparison shows Waste Management revenue from Delray Beach at $6.4 million annually, the lowest of the eight cities in the survey, calculated by volume. Waste Management services 19,363 residential units in Delray Beach, 14,463 multifamily and 40,000 yards per month of commercial, according to the document.

Delray Beach was not required to bid out the trash disposal contract, according to City Attorney Brian Schutte. And Carter pointed out that four other cities, including Palm Beach Gardens and Juno Beach, have recently extended their contracts without calling for bids.

McDuffie said the decision caused great “concern and consternation.” He said the commission had been vilified because of a view that it was reluctant to bid the contract out. Others claimed McDuffie was in collusion with Waste Management’s Carter, he said.

Resident Ken MacNamee’s previous complaints led to an extensive review of billing and practices related to the Waste Management contract in 2010.

In a recent email to the Office of the Inspector General of Palm Beach County, dated the day after the commission vote, MacNamee asks what the office can do and when they can do it. The office replied that it doesn’t have the authority to prohibit the contract, but it can monitor it. It also told MacNamee he could work to have the state law that covers municipal bidding changed. Ú

Bill Slavin, Civil War Union re-enactor, fires off a round to the enjoyment of the crowd at the American Legion Post 65 in Delray Beach. Post 65 held the Civil War re-enactment the weekend of Aug. 11 to raise money and awareness about the nation’s history.     Tim Stepien/Coastal Star

 By Tim Pallesen

Delray Beach commissioners have dipped into reserves to prevent an increase in the city property tax rate.

The decision prevents job cuts or a fire fee to make up for a $4 million shortfall in the city’s $97 million proposed operating budget.

Commissioners will finalize the budget and set a property tax rate this month.

“A significant amount was taken out of our surplus funds,” Mayor Woodie McDuffie said Aug. 28 after three difficult budget workshops.

Delray tries to keep an amount equal to 25 percent of its budget in reserves in case of a hurricane or other emergencies.

City staff had cautioned at an Aug. 16 workshop not to take too much of that money, recounting how much Homestead ’s taxable property value dropped after Hurricane Andrew.

“What are you going to do if a Category 4 hurricane goes down Atlantic Avenue?” McDuffie asked other commissioners at that workshop.

But commissioners agreed to cut reserves to 19 percent after assurances from Commissioner Tom Carney, a tax attorney and former banker who studied the city’s reserve accounts.

“This is the year to do this,” Carney said. “We can afford to do this.”

Commissioners hope to keep the city’s current property tax rate of $7.19 per $1,000 of assessed value, which equals $7,190 for the owner of a home valued at $1 million after exemptions.

They were still $200,000 short of balancing the budget after their Aug. 28 workshop.

“I say let the staff work on it. We can probably close that gap,” City Manager David Harden said. “We’re very close,” McDuffie said. Public hearings will be held on the budget and tax rate at 7 p.m. on Sept. 4 and Sept. 20.

Commissioners dipped into reserves after they couldn’t agree on ways to cut expenses and increase revenue to close the $4 million shortfall.

McDuffie and Commissioner Adam Frankel were unable to get a third vote to impose an $85 annual fire fee that would have raised $4.6 million.

Proposals to sell the Delray Beach Tennis Center and eliminate many special events were rejected.

Commissioner Angeleta Gray’s suggestion to cut jobs received no support from other commissioners. “I can’t look someone in the face and get rid of them,” Frankel said.   

Delray Beach

Current tax rate: $7.19 per $1,000 of taxable property

Proposed tax rate: $7.19

Public hearings: 7 p.m. Sept. 4 and 20

By Steve Plunkett

A lushly landscaped triplex and duplex will replace the giant mound of dirt across from the 4001 condo project being built on State Road A1A in Gulf Stream.

Town commissioners approved the multifamily development Aug. 10 after noting the project was a compromise between the four units town code would permit and the seven units the county allowed before Gulf Stream annexed the wedge-shaped parcel in March 2011.

One of developer OK Seahorse LLP’s buildings will be Georgian architecture, the other Anglo-Caribbean. Its original proposal put the two-story villas in one long structure.

“It’s a far better plan than the rowhouses,” Mayor Joan Orthwein said.

In the two weeks between approval by the Architectural Review and Planning Board and the commission meeting, OK Seahorse made further concessions: trimming 236 square feet from the structures to reduce the footprint from 36 percent of the parcel to 35 percent, moving the swimming pools to 10 feet from the rear property line instead of 8 feet, and making the two buildings 30 feet apart instead of 25 feet.

Residents in Polo Ridge just south of the site opposed the plan.

“The consequence of the five-unit proposal will literally eliminate the privacy of our four northern residents,” wrote Ron Pedersen, president of the Polo Ridge Homeowners Association, urging the town to limit the site to only four townhomes.

“I can assure you from the second floor you can clearly see over there,” Polo Ridge resident Robert Grover complained at the meeting.

The developer will plant Australian pines along the roadway to mimic A1A’s scenic appeal farther south and to help conceal the multifamily buildings.

“In the matter of a year or so this project pretty much is not going to be very visible from the road at all,” OK Seahorse architect Benjamin Schreier said.

Earlier in the meeting Town Clerk Rita Taylor swore in Bob Ganger and Tom Stanley as commissioners to fill the vacancies created by the death of Mayor William Koch Jr. and the departure of Vice Mayor Fred Devitt III.

Right after taking his seat, Stanley had to recuse himself while his wife, Kirsten, pled their case to expand their historic Polo Cottage and enlarge the garage a total of 1,492 square feet. 

Right now the kitchen ceiling is too low for her 6-foot-4-inch husband to comfortably enter and she counts on him to do the cooking, she said.

Commissioners approved the renovation 4-0.

Praise for Stanley and Ganger came at the end of the meeting. “Congratulations to our two new commissioners,” Orthwein said.

“We just decimated the ARPB,” Commissioner Garrett Dering added. “Do we need to do something quickly here?”

Orthwein said she hoped residents would volunteer for the open architectural review spots.

She also said she asked the town manager to investigate launching an official town website.                                 

Gulf Stream

Current tax rate: $2.93 per $1,000 of taxable property

Proposed tax rate: $3.10

Public hearings: 5:01 p.m. Sept. 14 and 25

By Tim O’Meilia

The South Palm Beach Town Council might dip $118,000 into their reserve money to keep from raising the tax rate on condominium owners next year. 

The council spent much of a budget workshop session Aug. 7 trying to slice at least $20,000 from the $1.75 million budget proposed by Town Manager Rex Taylor. 

The cuts would keep the tax rate at $4.32 per $1,000 of taxable property, the same as the current rate. In July, council members tentatively approved a $4.39 rate but noted they would try to reduce it.

The council scrutinized the town’s $62,000 share for a beach renourishment study, legal expenses for collective bargaining with the police, employee health care costs, $3,700 for replacement ballistic vests for the police and deferred compensation for the town manager and clerk.

Eventually, the council took Taylor’s suggestion that the $20,000 come from reserves rather than slice what Mayor Donald Clayman called a “tight budget.”  If next year’s expenses do not amount to what is projected, some of the $20,000 would not be spent. 

“I strongly recommend we have a flat tax,” said Councilwoman Stella Jordan, who led most of the questioning. She said she feared becoming one of the California towns that recently declared bankruptcy.

Keeping the tax rate the same would, on average, reduce the actual taxes paid by town residents because property values in the town dropped 1.7 percent, a loss of $4.5 million in value. 

“I really thought we were at the bottom last year but it did slip down a little this year. Maybe now we’re at the bottom,” Taylor told the council. 

“I truly don’t think the numbers are going to change much next year or the year after. It will probably be two years out before we can see any real change and then it won’t be significant,” the manager said.

At first, Taylor suggested that the council not use reserves to buy down the tax rate, but assign that money for one-time capital expenses. “I’ve never seen a town council that did that give back that money later,” he said.

The town has a $2.2 million reserve fund, $1.4 million of it earmarked for future beach erosion costs. Taylor had already proposed taking $98,000 from the remaining $800,000 to balance the 2013 budget. 

Councilwoman Bonnie Fischer, the town’s representative on beach matters, proposed cutting the $62,000 beach budget. The town is obligated to pay 20 percent of an environmental impact study on beach restoration. 

The workshop generated some exchanges between Jordan and Police Chief Roger Crane, who defended an extra $1,000 next year for ballistic vest costs. The cost is for bullet-resistant panels that fit into traditional police shirts rather than vests over the shirt. 

“We need to be in a traditional uniform rather than look like we’re trying to go out and fight a war,” Crane said. 

When Jordan questioned fuel and uniform costs for public works expenses, Crane replied, “If we’re going to start counting pencils, I’m going to start counting pencils, too,” he said, referring to instances he and other town employees spend replacing light bulbs, picking up trash and doing small jobs not in their job descriptions. 

Both Councilman Robert Gottlieb and Vice Mayor Joseph Flagello insisted that any cuts that are made not require a reduction in town services.   

South Palm Beach

Current tax rate: $4.32* per $1,000 of taxable property

Proposed tax rate: $4.39*

Public hearings: 7 p.m. Sept. 4 and 19

*Does not include Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue service tax rate"Toqw"Town Council", 

A surfer spins back to the ocean after riding a wave churned up by Tropical Storm Isaac near Briny Breezes.  Aside from a few power outages and downed tree limbs, most of coastal Palm Beach County was spared damage by this storm.  Jerry Lower / The Coastal Star