Thanks to a packed house and generous supporters, the 32nd annual fundraiser benefiting the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County brought in more than $250,000. Nearly 600 attendees turned out to hear bestselling author Paula McLain, best known for the novels ‘The Paris Wife,’ ‘Circling the Sun’ and ‘Love and Ruin,’ give the keynote speech. ABOVE: (l-r): Mary Windle, Caron Dockerty, McLain, Brenda Medore, Casey Syring and Patti McKenna. Photo provided

Now in its 51st year, Les Girls of Palm Beach enjoyed a seasonal gathering with 32 women representing different countries who shared an afternoon of fascinating conversation, friendship and fun. When asked what they appreciated most about the international and multilingual women’s club, they chose camaraderie and learning about other cultures. ABOVE: (l-r) Carlene Kolbe, Andrée Dowling, Roshan Massoumi and Margaret Kallman. Photo provided

The Dreyfoos School of the Arts Foundation celebrated turning 30 years old during a magical evening featuring student and alumni performances. Gillian Fuller served as hostess, welcoming supporters of the annual gala, which took place in January to a sold-out crowd. They enjoyed cocktails and passed hors d’oeuvres while listening to jazz, strings and other music under the stars. ABOVE: Trish Savides and Guido Christiano.
BELOW: Jo Anne Moeller and Michael Whelchel. Photos provided by Capehart

In recognition of three decades of artistic excellence, the Kravis Center celebrated its grand affair headlined by singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan. More than 400 guests mixed and mingled during a reception in the Cohen Pavilion prior to the performance in the theater. After the show, a lavish dinner was served. Bill Bone, Monika Preston and Kathryn Vecellio chaired the event. ABOVE: Aggie and Jeff Stoops. Photo provided by Capehart

The 10th annual extravaganza raised $423,000 for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County to benefit summer camps. Bennie Drain, head of the Delray Beach club, and Frank Zamor, the 2023 Delray Beach Youth of the Year, spoke about the invaluable programming the organization offers. In addition, an anonymous $200,000 donation was made. ABOVE: (l-r) Virginia Costa, Katie Barbatsuly, Hannah Childs and Jorgette Smith.

 Betsy and Michael Greene

Jennifer and Brian Coulter

Jenny and Steve Streit

Co-chairwomen Susan Ambrecht, Susan Mullin and Sacha McGraw.
Photos provided by Tracey Benson Photography

The 29th annual affair led by philanthropist Lois Pope and Leaders in Furthering Education (LIFE) featured a sold-out audience of more than 600. They were treated to a cocktail hour with the Palm Beach Symphony, a surf-and-turf meal, dancing to the Danny Beck Band and a laugh-out-loud comedy set from Las Vegas icon Rita Rudner. Singer-songwriter Paul Anka also performed. The beneficiaries of the more than $1 million raised are the Palm Beach County Food Bank and American Humane. ABOVE: (l-r) Pope, Anka and Rudner. Photo provided by Capehart

Local business leaders and longtime Place of Hope supporters modeled the latest fashions down the runway during an elegant and energetic presentation by the swanky department store in Town Center at Boca Raton. Funds raised aid the nonprofit’s aged-out and homeless youths and single mothers and their children. The event kicked off the annual Angel Moms Brunch, which will celebrate the 10th year of the Leighan and David Rinker Campus. ABOVE: (l-r) Bob and Karen Sweetapple, Tami Constantine and Charlie Koligian. Photo provided by Coastal Click Photography

The Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties had a successful event that featured key speakers Mary Pat Alcus, a member of its scholarship committee, and Rob Ranieri, executive director of the House of Hope Martin County. The Legacy Society is a select group of donors who have included the foundation in their long-term estate plans. ‘I credit the power of local community foundations for changing me from a well-meaning, check-writing donor to a wise philanthropist making a demonstrable difference in the community,’ Alcus said. ‘I hope I can inspire others to become advocates for our beautiful community and to encourage more well-meaning donors to transform into wise philanthropists who give where they live.’
ABOVE: Anne Harrison with Alcus.
Photo provided by Tracey Benson Photography

Diane Hextall and Suzie Hiles walk zone 4 as representatives of the Highland Beach turtle program. On mornings that they do not find any turtle nests from the previous night, they collect rubbish and assess beach conditions. Hextall has worked for the program for four years and Hiles for 20 years.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Jacquelyn Kingston, founder and executive director of Sea Turtle Adventures, monitors the beach at Gulf Stream with Dan Reilly and Gunner, a 2-year-old yellow Lab, in hopes of finding sea turtle tracks or Gulf Stream’s first nests of the 2023 season. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

More photos: A look at the start of nesting season

Staff and volunteers at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center had to move nine sea turtles to other facilities because Gumbo Limbo no longer had a license to treat them. Photo provided

By Steve Plunkett

Gumbo Limbo Nature Center’s injured and recuperating sea turtles were moved to other facilities, its veterinarian quit, and the coordinator of its turtle rehabilitation program and her assistant no longer have jobs.
“The rehabilitation facility is CLOSED until further notice,” the city-operated Boca Raton nature center said on its website March 15, later tempering the language to read that the rehab center was in “transition” and “TEMPORARILY CLOSED.”
The unexpected turmoil comes as Boca Raton was preparing to hand off operation of the rehab program to the nonprofit Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards, formerly known as the Friends of Gumbo Limbo, which has long paid for the veterinarian and her equipment.
The Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach took six of the program’s turtles; Zoo Miami is caring for two and the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart has one. Seven of the turtles are patients; two, named Morgan and Cane, were Gumbo Limbo “residents.”
The turtles were moved March 14, city spokeswoman Anne Marie Connolly said, following the resignation of veterinarian Dr. Maria Chadam and the firings of the rehab program’s coordinator, Whitney Crowder, and her assistant, Emily Mirowski.
Chadam, who cared for Gumbo Limbo’s turtles for more than a decade, said in a resignation letter that the time was overdue for her to focus on other aspects of her life.
“A culmination of events has quelled my optimism to a point where I cannot continue as a key member of this organization. This decision does not reflect a concern related to any one person or on any specific event,” she wrote in her Feb. 13 letter giving 30 days’ notice.
John Holloway, CEO and president of the Coastal Stewards, answered the next day. “Effective immediately, your services under the contract are no longer required,” he wrote.
“Once she resigned, that put our permit in temporary status,” Connolly said.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission issues permits for sea turtle research and rehabilitation, with one provision being that a rehab program must have veterinarians on staff.
Crowder, who was the FWC permit holder for the rehab unit, started working at Gumbo Limbo in 2012 as the assistant coordinator. Mirowski, an eight-year staffer, gained worldwide attention in 2019 with a Facebook post about a baby turtle that died after eating 104 bits of plastic. Both were laid off March 13 and ordered not to return to Gumbo Limbo, but are being kept on the payroll until May 22.
“Unfortunately, as far as the staff members … it didn’t work out the way we intended,” Connolly said, praising their contributions to the program. “We would have hoped they stayed onboard.”
With Crowder, the permit holder, no longer employed, the FWC ordered that the turtles be relocated.
Mirowski and Crowder say they were “blindsided” by their terminations when they showed up for individual conferences with city Human Resources Director Danielle Olson. They thought they were going to be given details of what to them was a vague transition plan.
“I thought HR was there to help you,” Crowder said.
In a Feb. 11 letter to human resources, Crowder accused the Coastal Stewards of having “unstable, toxic leadership.” Holloway, she wrote, “manipulates and lies to staff to play people against each other.”
In an interview with The Coastal Star, Crowder said Holloway also told other Gumbo Limbo staffers that the rehab unit was overpaid and that their jobs could be handled part-time.
The city’s spokeswoman downplayed the situation.
“Obviously some people aren’t happy about certain things,” Connolly said.
Holloway forwarded an emailed request for his reaction to Crowder’s assertions to Melissa Perlman, his new public relations consultant.
“Unfortunately John has nothing further to say about past HR/personnel issues involving city employees,” Perlman responded.
Dr. Mike Chouster, who was listed on the permit as Chadam’s backup veterinarian, said he “could have easily provided care if they wanted” but the city instead fired Crowder.
“A lot of what happened doesn’t add up,” he said, noting that Crowder’s and Mirowski’s positions were fully funded in the city’s budget and that no one at the city responded to him when he volunteered his services.
“A lot of the problems stemmed from their CEO,” Chouster said.
At this point, he said, he would turn down a job offer “on principle” unless the city and the nonprofit reorganize. “I think nobody’s going to want to” work there.
Manjunath Pendakur, who chairs the Coastal Stewards board of trustees, said they firmly support Holloway. “We are relying on his sound management and excellent working relationships” with the city, the FWC and others, he said.

Tanks sit empty after the sea turtle patients were moved to other treatment centers. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Beach monitoring continues
The changes in the “hospital-type” rehab program do not affect the nature center’s sea turtle conservation program, which has a separate FWC permit to monitor nests and release hatchlings, said David Anderson, who coordinates the “beach-related” activities.
“My nesting permit is not affected by the current situation at Gumbo Limbo. My staff and I are operating as normal every morning at sunrise conducting nesting surveys,” he said.
The hatchling drop-off box is still at the center, and Anderson’s team will still respond to phone calls about injured, sick or dead sea turtles, taking them wherever the FWC directs, he said. Gumbo Limbo’s emergency number is 561-212-8691; the FWC is at 888-404-3922.
On March 25 his team rescued a turtle in the Intracoastal Waterway near the Spanish River Boulevard bridge that had been hit by a boat propeller, made it comfortable overnight, and then took it the next morning to the Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, he said.
Some of the relocated turtles might recover and be released back into the ocean before the FWC rehab permit is reauthorized. Perlman said the Coastal Stewards have hired an experienced veterinarian, turtle program manager and turtle specialist who will start work and be officially announced in early April.
In an earlier email to interested parties, Holloway said the center’s two “resident” turtles were on “a long overdue vacation” and urged his membership to donate money to bring them back.
“Of course, we will miss Morgan and Cane while they are away, but everyone is committed to welcoming them home as soon as possible,” Holloway wrote, promising “exciting updates” would appear on the group’s social media and website.

What’s next for fired staff?
Mirowski is getting married in May, but because she lost her job, she and her fiancé will hold off on their plan to start a family, she said.
Crowder was less certain. “I know my future will bring me back to sea turtles, but I am just not sure what that looks like at this time,” she said. 
A person identified only as “Concerned Citizen” at www.change.org started an internet petition to “Bring Back the Sea Turtles” on March 22. By March 28 it had more than 3,000 signatures.
One of those signing was Chadam, who wrote:
“The city council should be ashamed. The nature center management should be ashamed. People aren’t thronging to the nature center to look at some butterflies, a broken down tower, lack of parking, and a building full of mold and termites ... and the beloved pufferfish is gone so good luck!”
Kirby, the center’s celebrity porcupine puffer fish, died Feb. 26.
Another signer was Cody Mott, who works for Inwater Research Group Inc. in Jensen Beach, rescuing sea turtles trapped at Florida Power & Light Co.’s nearby nuclear reactor. Mott was invited to join the Coastal Stewards’ Science and Technology Advisory Committee in 2022.
“Mr. Holloway never consulted the committee during the process to transition sea turtle rehabilitation from the City of Boca Raton to Coastal Stewards,” Mott wrote on the petition. When Chadam resigned, “the committee was not consulted. ... In the 12 months I sat on STAC it never met, despite Mr. Holloway being the chair.”
The city started negotiating last fall for the Coastal Stewards to assume responsibility for the rescue, rehabilitation and release program. As part of the arrangement, donations collected at the door, which used to go to the Stewards, will now be used for maintenance and improvements.
The city owns Gumbo Limbo and the surrounding Red Reef Park; tax dollars from the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District cover all salaries, operations and improvements.
The rehab program has grown tremendously over the years, Connolly said.
While the city and the Beach and Park District “want to support the success of the program, both organizations believe the animal rescue and veterinary component of this program can be better served by a nonprofit organization with fundraising capabilities, membership support, and the flexibility that local government agencies don’t have,” she wrote in an email. Years ago, she noted, Boca Raton transitioned all operations of the Tri-County Animal Rescue west of the city to a nonprofit.

By Steve Plunkett

A federal judge has ordered Boca Raton to reconsider its 2019 denial of a permit to build a home on the beach and barred Mayor Scott Singer and City Council members Andrea O’Rourke and Monica Mayotte from taking part.
U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith excoriated the three officials for bias they showed under oath and said some of their actions were apparent violations of Florida’s Sunshine Law. He saved his strongest words for O’Rourke.
“The record is replete with her bias all over. … Her credibility is totally shot,” Smith said.
Natural Lands LLC sued the city in federal court, claiming that the vote by Boca Raton’s elected officials stripped its property at 2500 N. Ocean Blvd. of all economically beneficial or productive use. It bought the .34-acre parcel in 2011 for $950,000; its plans for a four-story, single-family home provoked a public outcry.
After a five-day non-jury trial, Smith on March 24 declined to rule the case an unconstitutional taking of land by the city government, saying case law required that the property have no remaining economic value.

The property at 2500 N. Ocean Blvd. will come back to the City Council for consideration. Photo provided

“The emphasis on the word ‘no’ in the text of the opinion was, in fact, reiterated in a footnote,” Smith said, sending the case back to the City Council.
But Smith had little good to say about the three elected officials.
“I can tell you, from the beginning I was somewhat taken aback,” Smith said. “I don’t believe it for one minute that they would even consider being fair and impartial to Natural Lands under any stretch of the imagination at all.”
Singer, he said, was obviously biased and his testimony “made it clear as to his stance — he cannot be a fact-finder and impartial decision-maker in this particular matter.”
Smith found that to be particularly irksome because Singer, who was out of town and testified via video recording, is a lawyer. “He could not even address … what does the term ‘being fair’ mean. He looked at us like a deer in headlamps who was a person, a trained lawyer, that he has never heard of the word ‘fair’ before,” Smith said.
O’Rourke, the judge said, presented “unbelievable” testimony on the witness stand. At one point she “pretended” that she did not know she had been prohibited from voting in the case by the Palm Beach County Circuit Court and the 4th District Court of Appeal, he said.
Mayotte, too, “demonstrated complete bias from the start,” said the judge. “Clearly she had no business casting a decision knowing how she felt.”
Of all three council members, Smith said, “their beliefs were strong to the point where it was stronger than Gorilla Glue as to their bias that no property or nothing would ever be built.”
Smith deviated from the earlier circuit court and 4th DCA rulings in the Coastal Construction Control Line vote, which declared only O’Rourke and Mayotte biased, by tagging Singer as well.
Court documents showed Singer on Aug. 23, 2018, for example, emailed a resident that “Based on the potential impact on our dunes and sea life (including turtles), I will NOT support granting a variance that would be needed to allow the coastal construction for this lot and the proposed home there. My policy has been and still is to protect our beaches and green space.”
Midway through the trial, Smith allowed evidence to be presented on the actions of then-Deputy Mayor Jeremy Rodgers, who is no longer on the council, but did not specifically discuss it while making his ruling.
The Natural Lands lawyers discovered that the city had stipulated in similar litigation involving nearby 2600 N. Ocean Blvd. that Rodgers in August 2017 emailed a resident to say, “I’m of course going to continue going NO on 2500 and likely NO on 2600.”
That case also includes Facebook Messenger exchanges between Rodgers and O’Rourke regarding the beach parcels and Sept. 17, 2018, text messages between O’Rourke and Mayotte, court documents show. Florida’s Sunshine Law prohibits two or more elected officials from discussing issues outside of meetings.
But the end result of the Natural Lands case is that the partnership will again have to submit its application to the city to build seaward of the Coastal Construction Control Line. During the trial, Deputy City Manager George Brown and Development Services Director Brandon Schaad testified that the owner could submit a plan for a smaller house.
And despite their emails in evidence to the contrary, Singer, O’Rourke and Mayotte all testified that they might have approved a smaller structure.
Smith relied on that for his ruling.
“The court does not find that there has been a total taking,” he said, while noting that Natural Lands’ right to build a single-family home on the parcel “is a vested right,” meaning it existed before the partnership bought the property and will stay with the land if Natural Lands sells it to someone else.
Smith’s decision that Singer, O’Rourke, Mayotte and anyone else who was “tainted by them” cannot take part in the reconsideration means three sets of fresh eyes for the application. Term-limited O’Rourke’s last day in office was March 31. Without Singer and Mayotte, the issue will be decided by Yvette Drucker, Fran Nachlas and Marc Wigder, who all took office long after the Natural Lands vote.
Smith also ordered the city to pay Natural Lands’ attorney’s fees and costs.
Gavriel Naim, a Natural Lands partner who sat through the trial, said he needed time to digest Smith’s ruling before commenting on it.
“I won on my right to develop my property,” he said.
Brown, who also sat through the trial as the city’s representative, said only that when Natural Lands resubmits a plan, “We’ll consider it.”

Drawings show LEFT: the side of the building that faces Ocean Boulevard with two driveways and RIGHT: the mostly glass side of the building facing the beach. Renderings provided

Natural Lands planned to build a 48-foot-tall, 8,666-square-foot single-family home at the site and obtained a Notice to Proceed from the state Department of Environmental Protection in October 2016.
The City Council caused a public outcry in December 2015 when it approved a zoning variance at 2500 N. Ocean to allow something to be built on the 88.5-foot-wide lot. City rules normally require lots at least 100 feet wide.
It denied the CCCL variance on July 23, 2019.
Singer did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Before the trial, the city offered to pay Natural Lands the $950,000 it paid to buy the parcel to drop the case. The partnership declined.
During the trial, Celora Jackson of the state DEP testified that any construction project on the beach would have adverse effects on sea turtles but that her department made sure there were no “significant” adverse impacts before issuing a Notice to Proceed.

By Rich Pollack

Just six days before he was set to begin his second term in office, Highland Beach Mayor Doug Hillman died March 15 following a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 77.
Mr. Hillman’s death, which came less than two months after his wife of 54 years, Beverly, died, was a shock to town leaders and residents, with some just learning about his illness less than a month before.
Elected mayor three years ago after serving on the town’s Financial Advisory Board and having run unopposed this election cycle, Mr. Hillman was well respected for his leadership style and his ability to use a touch of levity to lighten serious discussions while working to build consensus.
Town Manager Marshall Labadie, who has worked with many elected officials during his career, praised the late mayor as “one of the best.”
“It really doesn’t get much better than Doug,” he said. “His leadership style and his concern for the community set him apart from most local leaders I have worked with. He became a mentor and a friend.”
Vice Mayor Natasha Moore said one of Mr. Hillman’s strengths was his willingness to listen to others.
“All of his decisions centered around what he thought would be best for the town,” said Moore, who automatically became mayor until next year’s municipal election.
Mr. Hillman also served as president of his condo association at Dalton Place, as well as president of the umbrella organization at Boca Highland Beach Club and Marina. 
“As president of Dalton Place and Boca Highlands, Doug was considered a visionary and smart and business-savvy,” said friend and neighbor Ron Reame, who is vice president of Dalton Place and on the board of governors of Boca Highland. “He was the voice of reason.”
Reame said that Mr. Hillman led efforts to revitalize their building, bringing it up to “five-star resort” quality.
“Doug was a man of integrity, was kind, helpful, patient, fair and complimentary to all who worked with him,” Reame said. “He was influential and inspiring to our community.”
Moore, who served as vice mayor for two years, said that Mr. Hillman was instrumental in helping her grow in the position.
“Not only was he a colleague, he was also a mentor,” she said. “He put all of us in the right position to make good decisions.”
Prior to coming to Highland Beach, Mr. Hillman served as an executive for some of the best-known men’s, women’s and children’s apparel, accessory and footwear brands, including Levi’s, Dockers, Burlington Hosiery, Keds, Pro-Keds and Sperry Topsiders, as well as London Fog, where he became president. Mr. Hillman also served as a business adviser to the governor of Maryland and as a consultant to the Baltimore Police Department. He was a professor at both Johns Hopkins University and American University, where he taught advanced marketing courses at the graduate level.
Mr. Hillman is survived by son Michael, daughter-in-law Michelle, granddaughter Molli and grandson Miles.
A memorial service was held March 19 at Dalton Place in Boca Highland Beach Club and Marina.

The Hampton Social (far left) and Le Colonial (far right) restaurants are open at Atlantic Crossing, which sits at the northeast corner of Atlantic Avenue and Northeast Sixth Avenue (North Federal Highway) in downtown Delray Beach. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By John Pacenti

Jay Gutierrez peeked inside the window the day before the grand opening of The Hampton Social at Atlantic Crossing, the long-awaited mixed-use development near the heart of downtown Delray Beach.
The nautical-themed restaurant joins the Vietnamese fusion restaurant Le Colonial as establishments now serving.
“This whole anchor for the east side of town, I think it’s taken forever, but ultimately, it looks like they’re doing a real quality job,” said Gutierrez, who lives in Delray Beach.
Joining the two restaurants is the clothing store Chico’s, a holdover from Atlantic Plaza, the remnants of which sit to the east like some wasteland set from The Last of Us.
Employees of anchor tenant Merrill Lynch have moved into its office suites and about 70% of the luxury apartments available have been rented. The apartment complex dubbed Brez at Atlantic Crossing has 85 units and eventually will have 261.
Laura Simon, executive director of the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority, said the first phase of Atlantic Crossing is already proving beneficial.
“That part of our district has been closed for so long and needing attention,” she said. “The businesses have opened in a strong way. It makes the connection for people who traverse west to east through downtown, making it walkable, making it a connector. It’s good to see.”
A year ago, the developer — the Ohio-based Edwards Cos. — said shops and restaurants were on the cusp of grand openings. It didn’t happen — just another delay in a long list of delays.
Now, 12 years after Delray Beach’s largest downtown development was proposed and five years since the groundbreaking, the project is coming to life east of Federal Highway, adjacent to Veterans Park west of the Intracoastal Waterway.

Pandemic and other issues
So why the delay? Cyril DeFazio, property manager for Brez, sighs.
“Everything,” he said. “Between COVID and then the construction team getting COVID and the products being delayed.”
Don DeVere, vice president of the Edwards Cos., added, “As it relates to the apartments, there were definitely some supply chain issues around appliances and various equipment.
“I can tell you the cost has increased significantly. So, early on, we were quoted as doing a $200 million project, and it’s well north of $300 million.”
The size and scope of the project drew initial opposition.
Six residents filed suit in 2013 claiming the city exceeded the height and density limits of the downtown master plan before dropping the litigation, saying they could not afford the legal fees.
Four architectural companies redesigned the development to allay opponents’ concerns that it would destroy the aesthetic of the city known as the Village by the Sea.
In 2017, the Edwards Cos. settled a $40 million suit filed against the city that claimed it deliberately stalled the development and disputed who owned the alleyways.
The Beach Property Owners Association had concerns about noise, but one potential source — the Bounce Sporting Club, which wanted to stay open until 2 a.m. — now plans to open instead at the Delray Beach Market.

An apartment building under construction along Federal. John Pacenti/The Coastal Star

Demand is peaking
Despite the delays, the timing may be perfect for Atlantic Crossing to come online.
The pandemic brought an influx of high-income individuals fleeing south, pushing the demand for luxury apartments, high-end restaurants and upscale office space. The Square in West Palm Beach — formerly called City Place — is transforming with the same type of offerings.
But Atlantic Crossing remains very much a work in progress.
Right now, just the first two of six buildings are open. Another apartment building is under construction to the north, while construction to replace the skeletal remains of Atlantic Plaza to the east will include 52 luxury park-side condominiums.
The number has dropped from 82 condominiums to address the market’s desire for bigger units, DeFazio said.
Plans call for 1,000 underground parking spaces.
Atlantic Crossing is not like Mizner Park in Boca Raton or The Square in West Palm Beach.
When complete, DeVere noted, all the buildings at Atlantic Crossing are designed to look like they were independently conceived with different architectural styles. They will have varying heights of three to five stories.
Between The Hampton Social and Le Colonial is a walkable courtyard that extends from Northeast Sixth Avenue to Northeast Seventh Avenue, replete with art installations and a “living wall” made up of plants.
“This development is conceived to be better integrated into the fabric of the city itself,” DeVere said. “It’s not a separate, self-contained, monolithic project.”
Delray Beach’s downtown has a panoply of offerings for the high-end eater and it is easy for new offerings to get lost in the noise — just see the Delray Beach Market, a food hall that closed at the height of the tourist season to retool.
But tables at Le Colonial are reserved for weeks in advance and there was no shortage of interest in The Hampton Social, as Gutierrez said.
“We were just saying the bar area looks huge — lots of high tops,” he said. “We were at Le Colonial the other night. It reeks of quality.”

New restaurants abuzz
Joe King was bleeding.
The co-owner of Le Colonial Delray Beach was helping workers move equipment when he slipped and gashed his knee.
“This owner works,” he joked.
Le Colonial has locations in Chicago and Lake Forest in Illinois, and in Houston and Atlanta.
“Delray Beach is on fire. This is the perfect location for us on the strip because it’s kind of past the real heavy action,” King said. “We did the research on Delray Beach.”
King is eager to show off his restaurant with its original artwork, imported woodwork, water features, patio and a bar that is made to look like it is straight out of 1920 Saigon.
“French-Vietnamese doesn’t really exist anywhere in the country at the sort of the level that we do,” King explained.
“There’s a lot of emphasis in the franchise on the aesthetic of the room, the presentation of the plate.”
The Hampton Social offers an upscale take on coastal cuisine with a blue-and-white theme. It has sister restaurants in Naples, Orlando, Miami, Nashville and five locations in Illinois.
It welcomed more than 2,000 guests the opening weekend and is fully booked with reservations, but is still able to accommodate walk-ins at the bar — as does the bar lounge at Le Colonial.
Melissa Cortese, regional beverage manager for Parker Hospitality, the company that owns The Hampton Social, was cutting limes for the grand opening and says the goal is for customers to leave the eatery feeling impressed.
“It’s a beautiful space and definitely different from our other locations,” she said. “I think it’s a lot more intimate this location with just the layout and the lower ceiling. It makes it feel a lot more tied together.”

Walker-friendly apartments
The apartments with their black charcoal accents offer different layouts. The idea is to attract the young professional as well as the empty nester looking to downsize.
The people living here are not looking for the strip mall life that has dominated much of suburban South Florida’s existence for decades.
“Folks who are moving from the big cities want the walkability,” DeFazio said. “They want to go downstairs and be able to walk to the store.”
The project, the downtown’s future, is situated near markers of its past.
Across the street on its west is the iconic Just Hearts boutique and the Old Florida stylings of the Colony Hotel & Cabana Club. The Blue Anchor Pub with its British decor and historic imported façade sits across Atlantic Avenue to the south.
Much work remains to be done at Atlantic Crossing. The pool is expected to be operational in August and the razing of the plaza is slated for May. Some art installations and green spaces are installed but others are coming.
A Lilly Pulitzer clothing store is preparing to move into a retail place and an insurance company — its name has yet to be revealed — has signed a lease to join Merrill Lynch in the office space.
DeVere said he hopes residents who may be skeptical of the development give it a visit and walk the new courtyard with its living wall and sculpture.
“I hope everyone will come to experience Atlantic Crossing with an open mind. I think folks will be pleasantly delighted,” DeVere said. “If there is anything I want to get across, is come experience the outdoor pedestrian orientation on the project.”
DeFazio said Delray Beach is still very much a “seashore town.”
“But it’s got that urban feel here,” he said. “And we think Atlantic Crossing marries the two ends: the beach with the downtown. There was a void in this area for a long time.”

At the Crossing ...
Delray Beach’s largest downtown development ever will cover 9 acres when it’s done and have:
• 261 apartments
• 52 condominiums (pending approval)
• 83,462 sq. feet of Class A office space
• 39,434 square feet of restaurants
• 36,667 square feet of retail space
• 1,000 underground parking spaces

John Jackson helps Birgit Grove settle in for dinner at Harbour’s Edge. He wears diff-erent colors each day.
Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Ron Hayes

All the men and women who serve the 340 elderly diners at Harbour’s Edge, a luxury senior living community in Delray Beach, dress with the utmost professionalism.
All their collared shirts are light blue and crisp, their slacks are black, their shoes and socks are black.
All except one.
“When I started here, they gave me a uniform,” John Jackson concedes. “But I said, I can’t do the uniform, so I started wearing my street clothes. I had to give back something.”
Street clothes does not begin to describe what Jackson has worn to work this Thursday afternoon in March.
Relaxing at a table outside the Edgewater dining room before his 5 p.m. shift, he sports a suit so red it almost could make Santa jealous, a black dress shirt, red-and-black plaid socks, a white necktie and white boutonniere.
“I’ve upgraded the job,” he explains. “Not the work, but the dressing. That’s what the residents love. They come down every day just to see what I’ve got on. And after they see my suit, they want to see my shoes.”
How to describe those shoes?
They are red, of course, to match the suit, and they sparkle. Imagine for a moment that the same designer who created Judy Garland’s ruby red slippers had also conjured a pair of manly dress shoes for John Jackson.
“I have 35 or 40 pairs of shoes,” he adds.
Jackson wore a different outfit to work yesterday, and he will wear a different one tomorrow.
“I know how to mix and match,” he says. “Most people, black or white, don’t know how to do that.”
He spots a little woman in a canary yellow blouse maneuvering her walker across the lobby.
“Oh, I like that blouse!” he calls. “It’s very pretty. And you’re walking better!”
She returns his greeting with a “Thank you” and a smile.
“You go to anybody over 65, there’s always something wrong with them,” Jackson says, watching her go. “Your body starts breaking down. I got problems, but when I come here I don’t think about what’s wrong with me. I keep it moving. I’m 81 and I’m enjoying my ride. A kind word and a smile changes everything.” At work in the dining room overlooking the Intracoastal Waterway, Jackson does not take orders or deliver meals. Anthony Cammarano, the director of culinary services, calls him a “valet.” The ID badge around his neck calls him a “scooter valet.” Residents call him the “walker valet.”
Once the diners have reached their tables, their walkers and wheelchairs are a hazard, blocking aisles and hindering the servers. Jackson’s job is to valet the walkers and wheelchairs to a small area off the maitre d’s stand, and retrieve them when the residents are ready to leave.
“I remember their names and the color of their walker,” he says. “I’ve got a system. The ones that come early, I put the walkers in a certain place, and the ones that come later I put in a different place.”

John Jackson’s job as valet is to move residents’ walkers and wheelchairs out of the way during dinner. He keeps track by organizing them into early and later arrivals and then remembers which residents have which colors. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Clothes call
Jackson began at Harbour’s Edge more than a decade ago, after spending most of his working life as a private duty nurse.
“I worked at a nursing home in Brooklyn, and then I was in Chicago nursing a multimillionaire. I had my own room, my own phone and my own car.”
At Harbour’s Edge, to the north of Linton Boulevard, he began as a concierge, took a few years off for another nursing job, then returned as the walker valet. After a nearly two-year interruption when the coronavirus hit, he considered retiring, briefly. The allure of friendly residents and colorful clothes brought him back in April 2022.
“The residents absolutely look forward to seeing him,” says Cammarano, the culinary director. “He knows them all and he provides a service they look forward to.”
You might argue that Jackson began preparing for this job as a boy in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he was born, one of eight brothers and sisters, on Christmas Eve 1941.
When he was 12, Jackson’s mother had a charge account at a downtown men’s store, where she bought him a suit for $29, to be paid off at $2 a week.
“Well, it looked like a croker sack,” he says, distaste creeping into his voice at the memory. “I mean, it was ugly. So I took it back and exchanged it for a $49 gray flannel suit, and when my mother found out she made me pay $2 a week until I paid it off.”
He had a job in a neighborhood grocery store then, earning $9 a week, so after giving his mother $5 a week toward the rent and $2 to pay off that suit, Jackson was left with $2 spending money. But he has no regrets.
“This was about 1953,” he says, “and that’s when I started getting fascinated with clothes.”
Not long ago, a new book appeared in the Harbour’s Edge library, just a single copy, the only copy.
Gentleman John is a homemade tribute with page after page of John Jackson modeling his seemingly endless wardrobe of flamboyant ensembles. The photos were taken by Judy Weitzmann, the book compiled by Helen Mctighe, the comments contributed by some of the other residents he inspires:
“Elegance with pizzaz” — Susanna Smith.
“No. 1 on the hit parade” — June Davis.
“You sparkle and shine” — Lee Emmer.
“Something extra to add to our dining experience.” — Gloria Weiner.
“I wish I dressed as well as John.” — Audrey Kaufman.
“A living work of art. He brings the joy of living to everyone who sees him.” — Linda Sandelman.

Motivation for all
Away from work, Jackson lives a contented life in the Leisureville section of Boynton Beach. He’s divorced, and the father of four children born before he was 25. Two daughters and a son survive. His oldest son died of COVID-19 at 63.
Nowadays he likes what he calls “the old music.” Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin and Jamaican reggae, and he likes dancing to it.
“I have a very fine girlfriend,” he reports, “but if I lose her I won’t have another one. I’ll just flirt.”
And travel is not so important anymore.
“I’ve been on cruises but I don’t like them,” he says. “There’s too much damned water.”
He works five days a week, 5 to 9 p.m., and now it’s nearly time. As he’s preparing to head for the dining room, Shirley Bonier, 94, and Marjorie Grande, 97, pass by and receive a kind word and a smile.
“He’s the best thing that ever happened to Harbour’s Edge,” Grande says.
“He brings color to the place,” Bonier agrees. “We look forward to seeing John every time we come down.”
Seven decades after he bought that $49 gray flannel suit, the fascination with clothes still gives John Jackson a reason to come to work, and the men and women of Harbour’s Edge a reason to smile.
“They might not remember what they ate, but they remember what I had on,” he says, heading to the dining room. “I don’t care how much money you’ve got or how high your status is, it’s all about love. Most of us are on our last ride here, so this is a motivation for me and for them.”
Then he pauses a moment to consider.
“Tomorrow,” he decides, “I’m going to wear blue and white.” 

The first sea turtle of the summer has nested — a huge, awe-inspiring leatherback. Our volunteers are out again at dawn looking for the V-shaped trails in the sand that show the arrival of our ancient, reptile visitors.
These leathery ladies are the canaries in the coal mine of the ocean, and by that designation, indicators of Mother Earth’s well-being.
Last year, more than 20,000 sea turtle nests were reported along Palm Beach County beaches. Without our stewardship their future is in danger.
This year, three of those stewards departed the rescue section of South County’s premier sea turtle hospital. One by choice, two let go. With them went Gumbo Limbo’s license to treat injured turtles.
No clear reasons have been articulated, and the center’s Gumbo Limbo Coastal Stewards nonprofit management has hired a public relations firm to talk with residents and the media, so we may never know. The scientists — who lost their jobs — are outraged at how the debacle unfolded, alleging chronic mismanagement and a failure of the nonprofit’s leaders to support the sea turtle care mission.
The only certainty is that no more turtles reside at Gumbo Limbo Nature Center — and no one knows when they might be back.
The good news is that turtle experts remain at the center to monitor nesting and hatching. If an injured or sick turtle is found, however, it likely will be transported to a hospital more than 40 miles away.
As Tim Stepien’s beautiful photographs in this edition show, all along our coast volunteers and professionals are out helping the nesting turtles (and soon their hatchlings), but you, too, can help this summer. Here’s how:
Turn off the lights — Nesting and hatchling turtles need the dark. Talk with your city or town and condo boards about making sure no external lighting is visible from the beach this time of year. And if you’re on the barrier island, consider turning off some or all of your exterior night lighting. Urban glow is a growing problem that negatively impacts sea turtles — especially hatchlings.
Clear the beach — If you keep beach chairs on the sand, pull them far away from where a turtle might nest, or a hatchling might head for the sea. If you’re a private club member, ask your management to pull chairs and cabanas off the sand at night. Same with beachfront condos with communal beach equipment.
Watch the dogs — Dogs aren’t allowed on beaches in Palm Beach County except in designated areas. Service dogs are another exception. All dogs should be controlled so no nests are dug out or holes left behind for hatchlings to fall into. Keep an eye on the kiddos as well.
Stay off the beach — If you are on the beach after dark, carry only a red light and stay quiet. If you see a turtle coming ashore, keep your distance and do not disturb her. No camera flashes. Turtles are easily frightened by light and noise and may return to the water without nesting — sometimes aborting their eggs.
Light no bonfires — These create a double whammy: light and noise on the beach, plus holes in the sand. Save those for the cool winter months.
Slow down — If you’re a boater, keep your eyes open for turtles during mating season. They’ll often be at the surface and easy to miss if you’re driving fast. Hitting a large turtle is not good for your boat, and can be deadly for one of our marine friends. Remember, rescue and rehab will be difficult in our area this summer.
Please be aware and considerate as the miraculous circle of life takes place over the next several months just steps from our front doors.
To learn more on how you can help, search for sea turtles at myfwc.com.

Mary Kate Leming — Editor

Lin Hurley of Delray Beach reacts after a player scores a goal. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Steve Plunkett

To say it’s been a banner year for longtime special-needs soccer coach Lin Hurley would be a huge understatement.
First, she was declared coach of the year for the Soccer Association of Boca Raton’s TOPSoccer program, an outreach program for special-needs children that she has been a part of since it started in 2000.
In August she was recognized as the Florida Youth Soccer Association’s TOPSoccer coach of the year, and in November with the same honor for the 11-state South Region of U.S. Youth Soccer. Two months later she traveled to Philadelphia to accept accolades as the national TOPSoccer coach of the year.
“This whole thing has been like a dream, it really has. I just love what I do, and I’ve done it so long, I never expected anything like this to happen,” Hurley said as Boca Raton’s 2023 season drew to a close in March. “This has made me feel like a rock star.”
Vic Nocera, who directs the TOPSoccer program, said Hurley’s national recognition was “like an Academy Award.”
“It’s all made out of glass. Probably weighs about 50 pounds,” he said of her trophy.
Hurley’s motivation is simple.
“I love the children, I love seeing the joy that they have when they come here, the smile on their faces,” she said.
As a sophomore at Boca Raton High School in 1966 she “adopted” a special-needs girl who was institutionalized in Miami, driving there every month with fellow high schoolers to hold a party “just for something for them to experience.”
“That’s how I started. I just fell in love with these children and I just knew that this was what God planned for me.”
After that came a degree in special education from the University of South Florida, four years of teaching at J.C. Mitchell Elementary, a break to raise her four children, then 25 years teaching pre-K at St. Paul Lutheran, Advent Lutheran and Spanish River Christian schools, all in Boca Raton.
She also launched an after-school program for special-needs kids at the Boca YMCA.
At a Valentine’s Day program at Spanish River, the headmaster told students about kindness.
“He said, ‘When I think of kindness, I think of Lin Hurley,’” she said.
Since 2000, the year the program began, Hurley has spent Saturday afternoons from January to March at Boca Raton’s University Woodlands Park coaching kids 4 to 7 years old. Her co-coaches are Suzie Wrenne, who joined in 2004, and Genie Butrym, since 2006.
The Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District presented Hurley, 71, with a proclamation March 6 noting its “profound appreciation for her dedication to our community.”
“I’ve never seen a lady with more energy. I’ve never seen her without a smile on her face. I’ve never seen her not being willing to help any of our parts of our soccer program,” said district Vice Chair Bob Rollins, who is also the treasurer of SABR.
“There’s some really nice people in this world still, aren’t there — like truly, just really, honestly nice people,” district Chair Erin Wright said.
Each TOPSoccer athlete gets an official soccer shirt and has one or two “buddies” from middle or high school to help out depending on the athlete’s abilities. Buddies earn community service hours and program awards based on their contributions. The program is free to participants, who numbered about 145 this year.
“I love seeing the joy they have when they come here,” says Hurley, who moved from Boca Raton to Delray Beach in 2015.
A typical Saturday starts with a group run followed by obstacle courses and a modified game. When players kick the ball into the goal, she immediately blows her coach’s whistle and shouts “Woo-hoo,” “Yay!” “Good job,” and “Gimme five.”
“We’re basically cheerleaders,” she says.
On March 11 she and 6-year-old Ethan Robinson walked hand in hand toward a soccer field for the warm-up run.
At 4-feet-11, Hurley didn’t have to reach far to hold onto the young player’s hand.
Her husband, Pat, who was on the Ziff estate’s management team in Manalapan, towers over her at 6-foot-3 but has this to say about the size difference:
“She’s considerably smaller than me, but she has more love in her little finger than I have in my whole body.”

Florida auditor general may be final arbiter

By Rich Pollack

For more than a year Delray Beach has claimed that Highland Beach owes it thousands of dollars for fire and rescue services, even going so far as to claim the town is in default.
Now, in a reversal of the story, Highland Beach says that Delray Beach actually owes the town money — close to $238,000 — under a contract in which the city staffs a town-owned fire station.
That number, which Highland Beach says is based on overcharges by the city the last two years, could grow dramatically if the town discovers it’s been paying more than it should have ever since the current contract was signed in 2016.
The state waded into the controversy in March, when a legislative committee instructed the Florida auditor general to take a deep dive into Delray Beach’s books related to its contract with Highland Beach and “put these financial disputes to rest.”
The Joint Legislative Audit Committee action was taken at the request of first-term Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, who had been a Highland Beach town commissioner before being elected to the state House in November.
“This is the best method for both municipalities to set the record straight and move on,” said Gossett-Seidman, a member of the audit committee.
During her presentation to the committee March 13, Gossett-Seidman said that one of her biggest concerns was Highland Beach’s claim that Delray Beach failed to provide records supporting the city’s conclusion that the town owes it $121,514 for 2021 and $396,140 for 2022.
“I’m asking Delray Beach to show us the money,” she said.
Highland Beach Town Manager Marshall Labadie said the town had repeatedly asked for records from Delray Beach and finally received some of what it was looking for in early February.
When the town’s financial team members reviewed those numbers, however, they came to a very different conclusion than did Delray.
“The Town of Highland Beach has determined the City of Delray Beach has overcharged the town for FY 2021 and FY 2022 in the total amount of $237,852,” Labadie wrote in a letter to Delray Beach City Manager Terrence Moore on March 10.
For his part, Moore said Highland Beach’s conclusions don’t square with the city’s analysis of the numbers.
“We’ve done the math,” he said.
In analyzing Delray’s “true-ups” — bills sent to the town to cover the difference between what it paid based on projected costs and what the city says it owes based on the actual final costs — Highland Beach used an in-rank average method to reach its conclusions.
That method, which the town says is specified in the contract, uses the average of all Delray Beach Fire Rescue personnel in a given rank as a multiplier, which is then applied to the number of employees in the same rank assigned to the fire station in Highland Beach.
For example, if there are five paramedics from Delray Beach assigned to the Highland Beach station, the cost to Highland Beach would be the average pay to paramedics throughout the city’s entire fire-rescue department times five.
In a different interpretation of the contract, Delray Beach says the cost to Highland Beach should be based on the actual salaries of the individuals assigned to the station in Highland Beach.
But Labadie said the town calculated the numbers both ways and determined that Delray would owe even more money to the town — about $100,000 more — using the city’s contract interpretation.
Highland Beach also challenged Delray Beach’s claim that the town needs to pay back more than $100,000 for ambulance service reimbursements that the city said it incorrectly refunded to the town. Labadie said that the town may need to give some of the funds back to Delray, but not as much as the city was requesting.
In his letter to the city about the true-ups, Labadie said the town discovered that the amount of costs being assessed to Highland Beach for the last two fiscal years didn’t match the amounts listed in the city’s published budget.
That apparent discrepancy also drew the attention of state Rep. Mike Caruso, co-chairman of the joint legislative committee and the representative whose district included Highland Beach and part of Delray Beach until redistricting last year.
“What I see here is that internal controls and operational controls appear to be very lax when it comes to Delray Beach,” he said.
Caruso said the work of the state auditor general’s office, when it does look at Delray’s financial processes, should determine if that is indeed the case.
“We’re not accusing the city of doing anything wrong, but just in case, let’s have the auditor general go in and check,” he said. “This is to make sure the city of Delray Beach is operating in a prudent and efficient manner.”
Caruso said the auditor general’s team will conduct a hard look at Delray’s finances in relation to its contract with Highland Beach from 2017 to 2023 and then provide its findings to the committee, which can make recommendation as to any further actions.
That process, Caruso said, could take up to 18 months, in part because the auditor general’s office is conducting about a dozen other reviews.
By that time, Highland Beach will have its own fire department, having decided in 2021 to break away from Delray due largely to high costs. In 2021, Highland Beach paid about $4.6 million to Delray Beach and in 2022 the town paid its neighbor $5.1 million, according to Labadie.
Highland Beach is also interested in getting documentation from Delray Beach similar to what it received for the last two years, this time for the 2016-17 fiscal year through the 2019-2020 fiscal year.
The town is now holding off further requests for that information, pending the audit.
Both Delray Beach’s Moore and Highland Beach’s Labadie say they welcome the audit.
“We are very supportive of any review,” Moore said. “Meanwhile the city of Delray Beach will continue to evaluate options to help consider a resolution of this matter.”
Labadie hopes the audit will bring an end to the financial disagreement.
“If they owe us money or if we owe them money, so be it,” he said. “We just can’t get to any conclusion.”

By Rich Pollack

After receiving a flurry of emails regarding the impact that a planned $8.8 million resurfacing project on State Road A1A would have on Highland Beach, Stacey Cohen went to a meeting hosted by state transportation officials with a pocket full of concerns.
How much of an inconvenience to residents who must drive A1A to get to and from the town would come with the project, she wanted to know. She also was concerned about the impact that wider bicycle lanes would have on the safety of motorists.
By the time she finished talking to traffic engineers and roadway designers, she was a little more accepting of the project, a little less worried and a lot more informed.
“Everyone I asked a question to had a really strong answer,” Cohen said.
Not everyone who attended the March 13 meeting had a chance to spend 10 to 15 minutes in the town library’s conference room with Florida Department of Transportation officials like Cohen did.
Many who showed up for the meeting at its start time of 6 p.m. found it difficult to make their way through a large crowd to the tables spread out highlighting the plans for the road project.
Those in the room a half hour to 45 minutes later found FDOT representatives eager to answer questions.
What Cohen discovered in talking to engineers was that the state undertakes resurfacing, restoration and rehabilitation projects on state roads every 20 years.
“It’s going to happen whether we want it or not,” she said.
Project engineer Brad Salisbury says the 3-mile-long project, which is scheduled to begin in May 2024, will stretch from the Highland Beach border with Boca Raton up to Linton Boulevard in Delray Beach.
He said that the project is about improving the road for the future while addressing current issues.
“We’re not going to be doing this again in five years,” he said.
In addition to resurfacing the road, contractors will be addressing drainage issues that have been a source of constant complaints by residents for more than a decade.
To enhance drainage, contractors will improve swales by putting infiltration rock under the grass that will make it easier for water to percolate down and off the road.
That work, along with widening lanes for bicycle travel, will mean the removal of some shrubs and trees, with FDOT officials saying they plan to relocate as many trees as possible.
One concern that resident Louis Trivento expressed was the future of the sidewalk on the west side of A1A. He learned the sidewalk — known in Highland Beach as the walking path — would be left relatively unscathed with part of it raised during the drainage work.
“We got our answers quickly,” he said.
Another concern residents expressed was about including 5-foot bicycle lanes on both the east and west sides of A1A.
Salisbury said that although the lanes are labeled as bike paths, they are actually marked shoulders, which are differentiated from bike lanes, which include a curb. He said that bike lanes are mandated unless that is contrary to public safety.
During the meeting, engineers and traffic planners showed residents many places along the road where a 4-foot shoulder currently exists and explained that in those cases, just 1 foot will be added.
Some residents expressed concern that wider bike lanes would lead to more bicyclists, including more riding in the lanes of traffic.
That’s probably not the case, says Bruce Rosenzweig, a former president of the Boca Raton Bicycle Club, who attended the meeting and believes the wider shoulder will do just the opposite.
“This will make the road safer,” he said. “There will be more people riding in the bike lane rather than in the road.”
Rosenzweig said that current road conditions are inconsistent, with shoulders narrowing down so much in some areas that bicyclists are forced to go into the road.
“Cyclists in general are more likely to stay in the bicycle lane,” he said.
Salisbury said that he and the rest of the team want to hear from residents and will review comment cards that were passed out during the meeting.
He said another town hall-style meeting will take place just before construction begins at which the contractor will be present.

By Mary Hladky

Boca Raton is ushering in a new era as two new City Council members take their seats on the dais.
Marc Wigder replaces Andrea O’Rourke, a fixture in city affairs who helmed the Golden Triangle Neighborhood Association and the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowner Associations before serving two council terms and advancing to deputy mayor.
Fran Nachlas, who like Wigder won election without opposition, was to be sworn into office along with him on March 31 but assumed her council seat in November after Andy Thomson vacated it to make an unsuccessful run for the Florida House of Representatives.
They take over just as the city’s top administrators are in flux. City Manager Leif Ahnell, who has served in that position since 1999, will retire next year. Deputy City Manager George Brown’s departure date has not been set, but he had been expected to retire until Deputy City Manager Mike Woika did so in July and was replaced by former North Palm Beach village manager Andy Lukasik.
All this is happening just as the city is awash in change.
The new Brightline train station opened in December, offering the possibility of an economic boom. Cultural leaders are moving rapidly to build a $115.4 million performing arts complex in Mizner Park. And plans are afoot for major makeovers of the former IBM campus, now known as the Boca Raton Innovation Campus, and the Park at Broken Sound.
O’Rourke, whose political career was bolstered by strident City Hall critic Al Zucaro, would like to be remembered for her support of arts and culture. With a background in art and design, she is a strong supporter of the Center for Arts and Innovation proposed at Mizner and for art in public places. She also pushed the city to hire someone to head what she calls the Department of Art and Culture. That position, not yet filled, drew 29 applicants.
“I think I definitely have brought awareness to the community about the importance of art and culture,” she said. “We are just starting to keep up with our neighbors and other cities around the country. I think we are lacking and I don’t mind saying it.”
Another focus for O’Rourke was on a downtown with a sense of place, or identity, that is walkable, bikeable and less dependent on cars.
To that end, she convinced other council members to bring in a consultant to re-envision a portion of East Palmetto Park Road, slowing traffic and adding shade trees, landscaping and wider sidewalks for outdoor dining and strolling. The council hired the consultant Alta Planning + Design at her final meeting on March 28.
O’Rourke, with land use attorney Ele Zachariades, formed a group that held a visioning session for the road. Her wish is that Alta will work with the team she assembled as it creates a master plan.
“I will continue to stay involved as a resident for the things that are important to me,” O’Rourke said.
She fought allowing a restaurant along the Intracoastal Waterway in the downtown and prevailed instead on building the Wildflower and Silver Palm Parks, riding herd over the details.
She sparked some controversy, and litigation, during her tenure, but she does not second-guess her actions or express any regrets now.
Most notable, she took actions that derailed the redevelopment of Midtown near the Town Center Mall. Developer CP Group’s plans would have transformed an area in need of an overhaul into a live, work, play destination that included residential units.
The developer sued repeatedly, but the city prevailed in court in 2021.
CP Group has since proposed a similarly ambitious project at the Boca Raton Innovation Campus, which it owns. The plans have not yet cleared the city’s approval process, but so far have avoided any headwinds.
As O’Rourke sees it, the demise of the Midtown project worked out for the best. CP Group, she said, has done much better planning for BRIC, incorporated art and culture into it and preserved its iconic architecture.
“I think that was a positive outcome of the lesson of Midtown,” she said. “You can’t build buildings for the sake of buildings. You can’t build without having a plan.”
In another instance, O’Rourke and council member Monica Mayotte landed the city in hot water in 2018 when they spoke against building a luxury assisted living facility in the downtown and a council majority voted against it.
Some of their comments drew a rebuke from the American Seniors Housing Association, which called them “unlawful discriminatory bias against seniors.” The developer sued, and the landowner threatened to do the same.
The council quickly reversed course, approving the project. The developer settled its suit and the landowner backed off.
Now, O’Rourke does not pull back her comments, saying the ALF would have been a “black hole” in the downtown. She denies discriminatory intent, and notes she ultimately voted for the project after the developer made revisions. The Concierge ALF was never built.
O’Rourke is a downtown resident, first in the Golden Triangle and now near The Boca Raton resort. Four council members live in the western part of the city, while Mayotte lives just south of downtown.
Downtown residents “probably are losing a voice” on the council, O’Rourke said. But since the downtown is so important to the city, and so many matters relating to it will be considered by the council, she does not believe downtown residents will get short shrift.
“The downtown has to be a major topic of conversation going forward,” she said.
Wigder jumped into his new role with alacrity before he was sworn into office, sitting with the audience at council meetings, reading city documents including the massive ordinance that governs downtown development, and attending community events such as the recent city-sponsored Touch a Truck that allowed kids to check out the city’s fire engines and other vehicles.
“As a City Council person, I found it to be awesome,” he said of the event. “I was fortunate to be able to talk to the city workers and ask what they did, ask how things work in the city, understanding all the people who are involved in city operations.”
As is customary for new council members, he has received briefings from the city manager and city attorney on policies and procedures to prepare for the role.
Wigder, an attorney, is the father of three children with his wife, Fran. He has a limited law practice and is the founder of Greenhouse Offices, a real estate investment company that manages properties for small and growing businesses.
His public service includes serving as vice chair of the city’s Community Advisory Panel, as a member of the Pedestrian and Bikeway Board and as vice president of the board of trustees for B’nai Torah synagogue.
During his campaign, he stressed smartly managing the city’s growth and sustainable development, so people can live near where they work, walk to their jobs and restaurants and lessen their dependence on cars.
In his conversations with downtown residents, “they love walkability. I have talked to many people who have reduced the number of vehicles they have.
“That was a big surprise to me,” Wigder said. “People who move downtown are embracing the walkable, vibrant downtown.”
Other priorities include succession planning to maintain high-quality senior city officials after current officials retire, enhancing communication with city residents, addressing attainable housing, maintaining the high level of city services and public safety and keeping the tax rate low.
“I am coming in with an open mind and I really am trying to help,” he said.
O’Rourke is pleased to hand the reins to him. “I have high hopes for him,” she said.

By Mary Hladky

In a sharp rebuke to Mayor Scott Singer, voters soundly defeated a measure that would have increased City Council terms of office from three years to four.
With only 9.8% of registered voters casting ballots in the March 14 city election, the final vote against the referendum was 3,943 to 2,712, or 59% to 41%.
Singer proposed the city charter change and actively sought support for it in emails to residents.
His final missive hit inboxes at 7:15 a.m. election day, describing the charter change as “responsible election reform” that did not affect the existing two-term limit on how long council members can serve.
In making his case, Singer said that of the state’s 25 largest cities, Boca Raton is the only one that does not have four-year terms.
Longer terms would give council members more time to bolster their expertise on city matters. And because they would stand for election less frequently, they could focus on city issues rather than campaigning, he said.
The Palm Beach Post, Sun Sentinel and Boca Raton Tribune editorial pages supported the change.
“The voters spoke. We’ve got work to do, and I’m excited to move forward with my new colleagues,” Singer said after the results were in.
Opponents argued that residents had not called for such a change.
They also said it was a waste of city money to spend about $250,000 to hold an election that would draw little interest because no council candidates would be on the ballot. Singer, Fran Nachlas and Marc Wigder, who was to be sworn into office on March 31, won election without opposition.
Singer countered that the change would save money over time, since it would result in fewer elections being held.
His idea got off to an uncertain start when the council narrowly voted 3-2 to place it on the ballot.
Deputy Mayor Andrea O’Rourke, whose final council term ended March 31, rejected the rationale that longer terms would make council members more effective. Nachlas said she could not support a change that benefited her with a longer term.
The issue soon was enmeshed in political intrigue when opponents and supporters of the change used political committees to send mailers to residents that obfuscated who was behind those efforts.
Only a few residents spoke out against the charter change at council meetings, but opposition brewed on social media.
BocaFirst, the successor to the BocaWatch blog that frequently criticized city officials, blasted Singer and council members Monica Mayotte and Yvette Drucker, who supported holding a one-question election, saying that only council members would benefit from the change.
Florida Jolt, owned by conservative former political consultant Jack Furnari, echoed all the criticisms and called the charter change a “slimy and selfish power grab at the taxpayers’ expense.”
A small group of Boca Raton residents, including unsuccessful 2021 council candidates Brian Stenberg and Josie Machovec, also urged residents to oppose the change.
Stenberg said he was “just floored” when three council members agreed to hold an election only to decide a charter change. “Why would you go forward with something like this?”
He sees Singer’s political future as the answer to his question since Singer would benefit from his extra year in office.
“It is easier to run for another office if you can say you are mayor,” he said. “It is so much easier to remain politically relevant when you are in office.”
Stenberg, who said he has no plans at present to seek office again, also sees a scenario playing out where Singer has a great deal of say on who is appointed to replace him if he resigns as mayor to run for another office.
Singer did not respond to a request for comment about Stenberg’s statements. He recently changed his politicking email address from scott@singerforboca.com to Scott@ScottSingerUSA.com.
Machovec, who served as campaign manager for Marci Woodward’s successful run for County Commission last year, said she got involved to increase awareness and didn’t think that “this was a good use of taxpayer dollars.”
Machovec, who also said she has no plans at this time to stand for election again, said she did not object to putting the matter before voters but not when it was the only item on the ballot.
The mailer urging residents to vote against the charter change came from the Parents Taking Action political committee. Stenberg acknowledges raising about $6,500 for mailers and using the committee, saying he did so to have an entity that could accept money, pay expenses and handle reporting requirements.
Another political committee, All for One, which has a Plantation address, distributed mailers urging voters to support the change.
It is unclear who was behind that effort. Recent contributors are not from Boca Raton and don’t appear to have any connection to the city, but the state’s election database does not contain up-to-date information.
No one answers All for One’s phone, and a recording says no one “is available.” Chairperson Matt Feiler could not be reached for comment.
Singer said he does not know All for One, Feiler, or Aston Bright, the previous chairperson.
The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections billed the city almost $145,000 to hold the election, less than the $255,000 the city had budgeted largely due to about 26,000 fewer ballots cast by mail this year than in 2021. The cost is not based on the number of items on the ballot as long as the ballot does not exceed one page.
Those who contended a one-item ballot would limit the number of voters going to the polls were right.
A total of 6,655 voters cast ballots. In 2021, with two hotly contested council races, nearly 13,000 voted. Nearly 14,800 voted the previous year, when Singer had one opponent.