The South County community saddled up for children who support adults in need during a benefit dinner for the American Association of Caregiving Youth. The Western-themed event included line dancing and mechanical-bull riding and honored local youths who care for elders, like Yaacov Heller, the evening’s keynote speaker. Heller tended to his grandmother when he was between the ages of 12 and 17. ABOVE: Connie Siskowski, founder and president of the AACY, with sponsor Dan Davidowitz. Photo provided

The Boca Raton Historical Society & Museum raised $30,000 at its sixth annual affair, which included a trolley tour of venues in downtown Boca Raton and a sampling of dinner-by-the-bite and specialty drinks at each. The evening began and ended at the resort, coming to a close with dancing and dessert.  ABOVE: Lauren Wallach, with Toasts, Tastes & Trolleys Chairwoman Kathy Qualman. Photo provided

A sea of white flooded the outdoor venue during a pop-up dinner party to benefit public arts education. After learning of the secret site by email notification one hour earlier, the 500-plus guests, all dressed in white, lined up for the 5 p.m. start time, eager to claim their spots among the dozens of tables on the grass. A performance by Dreyfoos School of the Arts students capped the night. ABOVE: Sponsors Marti LaTour and George Elmore. Photo provided by Christopher Fay Photography

The Bethesda Hospital Foundation honored five local women and one extraordinary young woman for the 18th annual Women of Grace Luncheon, attended by more than 600. The women were chosen because of their commitment to their nominating organizations and the South County community. In excess of $170,000 was raised. ABOVE: (l-r) Luncheon Chairwoman Kimberley Trombly-Burmeister, with Women of Grace Linda Heneks, Yvonne Boice, Claudia Cabral, Tammy Culmer, Jacqueline Moroco Maloney and Kirsten Stanley. Photo provided by Downtown Photo

Boca Ballet Theatre’s annual luncheon and performance successfully kicked off the 2017-18 season by raising awareness and support for the dance troupe. Guests gathered in the resort’s Great Hall for an afternoon of dance, food and raffles. The highlight was a number by Aran Bell and Sarah Lane, of American Ballet Theatre. ABOVE: (l-r, front) Yvonne Boice, Christine Lynn, (back) Charlotte Beasley, June Gelb, Honorary Chairwoman Arlene Herson, Kim Champion and Dr. Ron Rubin.  Photo provided by Boca Ballet Theatre

The school had its annual Halloween event at which guests enjoyed trick-or-treating in costume, showed off decoratively themed trunks and shared in the camaraderie of the campus community. Prizes were awarded for Best Overall Trunk. Faculty and staff helped organize Trunk or Treat, along with parents and students. ABOVE: (l-r) Parent Organization Board members Kelly Alexander, vice president; Kim Webb, president; Jen Pisciotto, treasurer; and Colette Turner, secretary. Photo provided

In honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the Palm Beach County Clerk & Comptroller’s office raised more than $1,100 through doughnut and T-shirt sales and gathered nearly 400 stuffed bears and hundreds of personal-care items for Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse. The office’s Domestic Violence Department provides answers to frequently asked questions, contact numbers for agencies that help victims and information about how to file an injunction. ABOVE: Clerk Sharon Bock (right) presents a check to Rebecca Keck, development and volunteer coordinator of AVDA. Photo provided

ABOVE: Fewer than 700 people called Boca Raton home when the airfield dominated the area that is now home to FAU.  
BELOW: A promotion for the WLRN documentary.  Photo provided by Boca Raton Historical Society

By Thom Smith

The Calusa and Tequesta were here first, perhaps more than 10,000 living along the coast when Ponce de Leon arrived in 1513. But European diseases, tribal warfare and slavery had reduced the population to a few hundred by the time surveyor Thomas Rickards bought 50 acres on Lake Boca Raton in the 1880s.
    Even after Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway opened in 1895, Boca Raton was hardly an international destination.
    From those early days, Boca’s status ebbed and flowed — first driven by agriculture, then by tourism as Addison Mizner turned saw palmetto and scrub pine into a paradise around the Boca Raton Resort and Club.
    The real estate boom didn’t launch until the 1960s as entrepreneurs linked to the likes of Arvida and IBM saw financial gold in the scrub.
    For some people the inspiration first occurred two decades earlier, during World War II.
    Even before Pearl Harbor, the military had begun building bases, and South Florida’s flat terrain and year-round warm weather were ideal for aircrew training. Despite a population of barely 700, Boca had an airport. It had lots of vacant land, much of which was owned by the Japanese-American farmers at the struggling Yamato Colony. It also had a ready-made headquarters — the Boca Raton Resort.
    Said Susan Gillis, curator at the Boca Raton Historical Society: “Before the war, the town had two traffic lights and two bars. It’s changed a little.”
    Boca Raton Army Airfield became the nation’s only development and training center for a new technology that had been developed by the British: radio detection and ranging — or radar.
    During the war, the base grew to 800 buildings housing more than 16,000 troops and employing more than 1,200 civilians, yet it operated in the strictest secrecy.
    After the war, however, word spread. Many veterans returned, some earning degrees at Florida Atlantic University, which now occupies the land and some of the remaining buildings.
    The airfield eventually showed up on the radar of Deerfield Beach journalist and author Sally Ling, whose book Small Town, Big Secrets: Inside the Boca Raton Army Air Field during World War II caught the attention of Miami public television station WLRN.
    The station has produced a documentary, Boca Raton: The Secret Weapon That Won WWII.
    Before the TV debut in early November, the film was screened Nov. 1 at FAU, where several airfield veterans proudly repeated a popular phrase: “Radar won the war; the A bomb ended it.”
    By the way, Gillis appears in the film.
                                ***
    For more than two decades, Delray’s Frank McKinney has been building and/or remodeling big, fancy, expensive houses, usually on the beach or no more than a stone’s throw away.
The Manalapan monster — three stories, 14 bedrooms and an 18-car garage on 5.5 acres with 520 feet of beachfront — is still available at $135 million or a reasonable offer.
    In Ocean Ridge, 19 Tropical is a slightly more modest offering. Built on one-sixth acre on the fourth lot from the beach, this “micro-mansion” includes a 650-square-foot master bedroom, an LED-illuminated living reef aquarium wall, an office surrounded by glass and water and the latest in smart-home technology. Asking price: $2.95 million.
    A few others are still for sale, but McKinney has announced that his next project, on the 18-foot-high coastal ridge in South Palm Beach, will be his last. He introduced the finale at a double-barreled, invitation-only full house Oct. 24 at the Lake Worth Playhouse.
    Barrel No. 1: The house will feature five bedrooms (four oceanfront) with a 1,270-square-foot master bedroom that rises 31 feet above sea level, ocean-view glass elevator, cantilevered deck, oceanfront kitchen and 50-foot disappearing edge pool. Preliminary price is around $20 million.
    Given the usual McKinney amenities perched atop the highest elevation in southern Palm Beach County, he’s confident he’ll find a buyer.
    Barrel No. 2:  He’s leaving the luxury housing business. He’ll continue his commitment to build affordable housing in Haiti — he’ll start his 26th village next year — but will pursue his endeavors as a full-time writer. After three real estate books and a children’s fantasy recounting his daughter’s imaginative adventures as she walked to and from school for 10 years, he has turned to inspiration.
    The Tap dealt with accepting the responsibility and gaining confidence to handle what one prays for. Early next year, The Other Thief, billed as “a collision of love, flesh and faith,” marks his entry into Christian romance.
    “It’s a pretty racy book,” McKinney claims. “It’s sort of a combination of Fatal Attraction and The Passion of the Christ. It’s a novel, but it combines the real-life fall from grace of a high-profile Christian singer and his progress toward redemption and mercy and grace. Secular readers will enjoy it for all the reasons they should, and the Christian reader will enjoy it for the biblical references.”
    Haiti also will benefit, as each $20 preorder will provide 200 meals to children in McKinney’s Caring House communities.
                                ***
    No word yet, but you can bet the first family will return to Mar-a-Lago for Christmas  —  about the same time that other D.C.-based group hits town. No, not the Florida congressional delegation, the Limbaugh-Coulter axis or the Tea Partiers; we’re talking about those notorious Capitol Steps.
    For several years the spare-no-politician comedy group, many of whom are former congressional staffers, has made Palm Beach County its winter home. Capitol Steps will begin the campaign New Year’s Eve with two shows at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, then hit Delray Beach’s Old School Square on Jan. 4 and 5 and make frequent campaign stops across the South Florida countryside. From March 2-18, they’ll filibuster at the Kravis Center.
    The Steps, which proudly “put the MOCK in democracy!”  just released a new album, Orange is the New Barack. Surprisingly, they have never played Mar-a-Lago. “I have honestly never heard if President Trump is a fan of the Steps, dislikes us, is completely ambivalent towards us or even knows we exist,” Manager Mark Eaton said from Washington. “We have not been invited, yet.
“We certainly aren’t visiting uninvited — certainly not on actors’ salaries! But if we get an invitation, we will certainly go!  (hint, hint).”
                                ***
    The snowbirds are flocking back and the regulars are arising from their nine-month summer stupor. Time for festivals.
    All-event passports for the 11th annual Palm Beach Food & Wine Festival, Dec. 14-17, are sold out, as are several individual festival events. Tickets do remain for individual events at the likes of Buccan, PB Catch and Cafe Boulud. Chefs include those with local ties such as Lindsay Autry, Daniel Boulud, Clay Conley and Michelle Bernstein, plus Food Network stars Robert Irvine and Jeff Mauro, James Beard Award nominee Elizabeth Falkner and Chopped winner Giorgio Rapicavoli. (Tickets at www.pbfoodwinefest.com.)
                                ***

Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks of the Tedeschi Trucks Band will perform Jan. 14 at the Sunshine Music Festival at Mizner Park in Boca Raton. Photo provided

Worthy of advance note are the Sunshine Music Festival, Garlic Fest and SunFest.
    Again headlining Sunshine, set for Jan. 14 at Mizner Park, will be the Tedeschi Trucks Band. The performance will be its first local show since Derek Trucks’ uncle and Allman Brothers bandmate Butch Trucks committed suicide in late January.  
    Also on the bill are Medeski, Martin and Wood; Galactic; Hot Tuna; Foundation of Funk, and The Suffers.
    For those who prefer their music a bit more Vegas-like, at the other end of Mizner Park that night, Clint Holmes performs at the Cultural Center’s RRazz Room.
                                ***
    What used to be the Delray Beach Garlic Fest is now for all of South Florida. For the second year, it will take over John Prince Park in Lake Worth from Feb. 9 to 11. The move was necessitated when the Delray Beach City Commission decided the city was suffering from event fatigue. The Garlic Fest was scratched in favor of the Delray Beach Open tennis tournament.
    Bruised but not broken, organizers of “the best stinkin’ party in South Florida” looked northward and vowed to make it bigger and better. Being a celebration of all things garlic, the food and a host of chef competitions return. A second stage has been added to accommodate the likes of Hoobastank and the Donna Summer Celebration headlined by Summer’s sister, Mary Gaines Bernard.
    For the first time, fans who want to stay on site all weekend can reserve RVs from Giant Recreation World; chairs are now permitted thanks to the extra room, and cash or credit cards will be accepted at all food and beverage vendors. Tickets, $27 to $100, are available at www.eventbrite.com.
                                ***
    Of course, the biggest party is SunFest, although it’ll be different — only four days instead of five. Ironically, that’s good news: Festival managers believe they can use the money saved from daily overhead to bring in more and better acts. The party will run May 3-6.
                                ***
    On Dec. 16 comedian and The View stalwart Joy Behar will bring her comedy to FAU’s Carole & Barry Kaye Performing Arts Auditorium.
                                ***
    On a more refined level, Symphonia Boca kicks off its season Dec. 10 at St. Andrews School with a concert that will be especially memorable for guest conductor Gerard Schwarz, who will be celebrating his 70th birthday. But in an unusual turnabout, he’ll be the one bringing the gift — a world premiere of his composition for cello and orchestra.
    Solo work will be handled by Gerard’s son Julian on cello and Jeffrey Kaye on trumpet. The concert begins at 3 p.m. Ticket holders who would like to learn a bit more about the scheduled works can take part in a pre-concert discussion with the performers at 2 p.m.  
                                ***
    “Slidemap” is a device that integrates a motorized stage used in 3-D printers, microscope imaging, and machines learning algorithms to distinguish tumors as cancerous or benign, increasing accuracy and speed of diagnoses.
    Sounds like something that might have come from MIT or Stanford. Wrong. It was developed by Devin Willis, a ninth-grader from Florida Atlantic University High School, who in October placed fourth in 3M’s Young Scientist Challenge in St. Paul, Minn.
    Devin hopes his innovation will enable faster, more accurate and affordable diagnoses, especially in developing countries where access to medical professionals is limited.
    Taking first was Gitanjali Rao, a Colorado seventh-grader who is developing Tethys, a low-cost method to quickly test water contamination and decrease health effects from lead exposure.
                                ***
    Wheelin’ and dealin’. Last December when Wheel of Fortune’s “Wheelmobile” contestant search stopped at the Broward Mall in Plantation, Boca Raton resident Cathy Murray, a Palm Beach County firefighter, and her longtime friend Staci Hill, a Davie middle school teacher, tried their luck.
    They made the tryout show at the mall and then waited. Finally, in September, the call came to go to California to compete in “Girlfriend Getaways” week. They had to keep quiet, however, until the show aired in early November, but now they can crow.
    Guessing the phrase “juicy roast & avocado toast,” they beat the two other teams, winning $30,100 and a trip to Puerto Rico (maybe they can help with hurricane recovery while on the island!), and in the bonus round, they correctly guessed “gulping down coffee” for another $35,000.
    Both plan to use their winnings to remodel their kitchens, and Murray is looking forward to a family trip to the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls.
                                ***

Has Lane Kiffin has changed the Owls’ luck? Photo provided

Who woulda thunk it!
After years of subpar performances and losses in its first two games this year, the future hardly looked bright for Florida Atlantic University’s football team. But from the start, new coach Lane Kiffin remained steadfast, sticking with a mantra older than the game itself: one game at a time.
Kiffin arrived with a mixed bag of credentials, having blown gigs with the Oakland Raiders, Tennessee and Southern Cal before a rehabilitative stint as offensive coordinator at Alabama that included a national championship. But the Owls are flying. A 52-24 romp over local rival FIU and a victory at Charlotte extended their winning streak to eight.  The Owls won the East Division title in Conference USA with a game to spare.
Looking back, the opening losses to Navy (42-19) and Wisconsin (31-14) don’t look so bad. It’s the 34-31 defeat by Buffalo in game No. 4 that still sticks in Kiffin’s craw.
A big win was the 69-31 thrashing of the not-so-Mean Green of North Texas back on Oct. 21, but that’s all out the window in the rematch for the conference title on Dec. 2. Still — one game at a time.                 

Meanwhile, for the first time in team history, FAU won a few votes in the coaches’ Top 25 poll after the FIU game, and regardless of the outcome of the championship game, the Owls will play a bowl game.            
Conference USA has affiliations with six bowl games: Boca Raton, Gildan New Mexico Bowl, Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla in St. Petersburg, Bahamas, R&L Carriers New Orleans and Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas — plus a conditional spot in the Camping World Independence Bowl in Orlando if the Atlantic Coast or Southeastern conference can’t fill the spot. But with another win over North Texas, FAU might be able to write a better ticket.
 So might Kiffin. Even as his good fortune continues, he still insists on pursuing one opportunity at a time. But no doubt big schools will come calling, schools with much more history and a lot more money than FAU.  But his corner includes two major figures: Athletic Director Pat Chun and President John Kelly. Chun comes from Ohio State, Kelly from Clemson. Both are accustomed to winning. And where else can a fan see the ocean from the stadium?

    Thom Smith is a freelance writer who can be reached at thomsmith@ymail.com.

The Place: Café Frankie’s, 640 E. Ocean Ave., Boynton Beach; 732-3834 or www.cafefrankies.com
The Price: $9 at lunch
The Skinny: I initially didn’t want to use this photo with my review — it looked gloppy, I told my editor.
Then I looked again and realized how this lasagna was dripping and oozing with tomato sauce and cheesy goodness, and decided to go for it.
Call it comfort on a plate.
Layer after layer of tender pasta arranged with pecorino, asiago, mozzarella, ricotta and parmesan, plus marinara sauce, with a little more sauce, believe it or not.
It’s a real value at lunch. Good, and we’ll pretend it’s good for you.

— Scott Simmons

By Dan Moffett

    South Palm Beach Town Manager Bob Vitas returned from a vacation in Europe thinking he would resolve the last details of his new contract at the Oct. 24 council meeting.
Instead it turned out to be his last council meeting.
In a swift and surprising move, the Town Council unanimously voted to fire Vitas without explanation or stated cause. The vote for a resolution of “no confidence” was 4-0, with Councilwoman Lucille Flagello absent.
    The council gave Vitas 15 minutes to clean out his desk, and he left the building without comment, escorted by Police Chief Carl Webb.
“What just happened?” a resident in the audience asked.
“He was the best town manager we’ve ever had,” said one longtime town employee.
    Another employee left the room in tears. A police officer shook his head and muttered a vulgarity. Vitas recently negotiated a new contract for the department that won glowing reviews from officers — and for that matter, council members.
    “It’s been very difficult. We will move forward,” Mayor Bonnie Fischer said. “Bob did a lot of fine things for our town. But we decided to move on, and we wish him well. This is business. It’s nothing personal.”
    Vitas said later that he thought he had the council’s support until the day before the meeting, when he called Fischer and detected a change in tone. Then he received an email from Councilwoman Stella Gaddy Jordan that said she intended to introduce the no-confidence motion.
    “That came out of the blue,” Vitas said. “There are no grounds, no basis for this.”
Jordan declined to comment on the record but said she has received congratulations from residents for “doing what needed to be done.”
    Vitas conceded that relations with the council, Jordan in particular, have grown more contentious during the past year. Hired in October 2015, the former Key West manager earned enthusiastic praise from the council during his first year in South Palm Beach before things began to sour in 2017.
    Vitas said most of the problems have been about money. During budget talks, he told the council he believed he was entitled to consideration for a merit raise, auto allowance and cost-of-living adjustment to his $103,000-a-year salary. Led by Jordan’s opposition, the council balked and ignored his requests.
    Vitas, 60, said he believes the council violated the town charter and his contract by not giving him a performance evaluation, despite his repeated requests for one.
    “There’s no doubt they’re in violation,” Vitas said.
    In recent weeks, the council’s complaints fell on smaller issues. Councilwoman Elvadianne Culbertson criticized Vitas for preventing her from making editorial changes to a story in the town’s newsletter.
    Interim Town Attorney Glen Torcivia said the contract Vitas signed two years ago allows for no severance pay and no allowance for termination without notice. He leaves with nothing.
    “I believe that my efforts over the past two years have resulted in a local government that today is fiscally responsible, transparent, accountable and efficient in delivery of our services to the public,” Vitas said in a written statement to the town, prepared before the meeting — a statement that also said, “The Town Council has been supportive and complimentary of my efforts.”
    Fischer said the town will begin the search immediately for a new manager. Until it finds one, Clerk Maylee De Jesus and Webb will oversee the town’s day-to-day business. It will be the third search in the past three years.
    In late 2014, the town hired Jim Pascale of Princeton, N.J., as manager. Six months later he resigned after disputes with the council. The town then went five months without an administrator until hiring Vitas.
    In September, the council accepted the resignation of Town Attorney Brad Biggs, who had held the job for 11 years. Biggs was forced out of the position after months of testy relations with the council, including several public clashes with Jordan.
Also, Town Accountant Beatrice Galeano resigned late last year after 14 years of service. Co-workers said problems dealing with the council contributed to her exit.Ú

Edward Siedle has made a career investigating flawed and mismanaged retirement assets. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

By Mary Hladky

    He’s been called the “Sam Spade of money management” and “pension detective.”
    Ocean Ridge resident Edward Siedle, the president of Benchmark Financial Services Inc., has forged a career investigating more than $1 trillion in retirement plan assets, uncovering flawed investment strategies, excessive fees paid to Wall Street firms hired to manage the funds and plan mismanagement.
    His expertise is sought out because public employee pension funds and corporate retirement plans are in big trouble.
    Unfunded pension liabilities — the amount that pension fund assets fall short of commitments to workers — have reached $3.85 trillion, according to a 2017 report by Hoover Institution senior fellow Joshua Rauh.
    Most city and state public pension funds are underwater. Pension obligations have contributed to the bankruptcies of Puerto Rico and several cities, including Detroit.
    The consequences are devastating to many retirees, who have seen pensions they were promised and depended on slashed, cost-of-living adjustments eliminated and the substitution of 401(k) retirement plans for traditional corporate pensions.
    Siedle’s work often involves finding out what went wrong and what can be done to shore up the plans. His findings and recommendations have met with resistance by those whose decisions he has criticized, and some have questioned his competence.
    But now, Siedle has won a measure of vindication.
    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has awarded him about $50 million — the largest whistleblower award the SEC has made to date — for helping it make the case that JPMorgan Chase failed to disclose to wealthy clients that it was steering them into investments that would be most profitable for the bank, the online Rhode Island news outlet GoLocal reported in July.
    JPMorgan Chase agreed in 2015 to pay $307 million to settle accusations that it improperly guided clients into its in-house mutual funds and hedge funds.
    Siedle did not confirm or deny the award in an interview with The Coastal Star, and the SEC does not identify whistleblowers.
    But Siedle did say he is expecting a record award from another federal agency very soon.
    “The question was, ‘Is this guy right? Does he have any credibility?’” Siedle said. “The question is answered. Getting the award closes the door on that, who was right and who was wrong.”

Father’s death inspired career path
    A personal tragedy when he was 17 influenced Siedle’s decision to become a lawyer. His father, Robert Siedle, a sociologist and lecturer at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, disappeared in that country in 1971 as he and a freelance reporter investigated reports that 150 soldiers had been massacred by fellow troops during the brutal dictatorship of Idi Amin. A witness later said that soldiers had killed both men.
    The Ugandan government paid a settlement to both of their families without acknowledging any wrongdoing.
    The settlement allowed Siedle to attend Franklin Pierce College and the Boston College Law School, where he earned a law degree in 1983.
    While he previously had no interest in pursuing a legal career, his father’s death and the legal matters that arose from it “led me to conclude a young man needed to know how to handle these things,” he said.
    He was hired as an SEC attorney, working for three years in a division that regulates money managers and mutual funds.
    Siedle then moved to the private sector, becoming in-house counsel for a mutual fund. When he uncovered illegal activity, and his employer did nothing about it, Siedle became a whistleblower.
    He has since filed about 120 whistleblower claims with financial regulators, most with the SEC, he said.
    Whistleblowing is fraught with risk. Those who report wrongdoing and illegal activity are often fired from their jobs and blackballed from new ones.
    But for Siedle, his willingness to investigate and file claims has brought him clients seeking someone who will do just that.
    “It becomes your brand and identity,” he said. “People come to you with violations of the law. The negative becomes a positive.”
    Or, as he states on the back of his business card: “Because someone has to take out the trash.”
    Siedle, 63, was born in Trinidad and has always loved the tropics. So after many years in New England and Manhattan, he wanted out of the cold and snow.
    He scouted homes throughout South Florida before moving to Lighthouse Point in 1995. Two years later, he bought a waterfront home in Ocean Ridge, where he lives with his wife, Tamara, and two children ages 12 and 15. He founded Benchmark in 1999.
    “I wanted to return to my tropical roots,” he said. “I love it here.”

Take note and take care
    Siedle soon learned he had landed in what he termed a “challenging social environment” rife with Medicare, Medicaid, brokerage and other fraud.
    South Florida “is the scam capital of America. Even among the very wealthiest here, there is a lot of skullduggery. Many of the most prominent social figures have very questionable pasts,” Siedle said.
    He urges South Florida residents to take note and take care. “This is a high risk area for financial crime. People should understand that. … The lawyer that wants to manage your estate. The guy at the country club who says I can manage your money. People are not who they appear to be.”
    Despite the intense media coverage of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, Siedle said people still are not carefully scrutinizing their investments.
    “To this day, people are making the same mistakes … even the wealthiest, most sophisticated people get ripped off,” he said.
    Even though he is tucked away on a quiet island, clients have found Siedle.
    He has investigated public employee pension funds in Rhode Island, Alabama, North Carolina, Jacksonville and elsewhere, and corporate retirement plans for Walmart and Boeing.
    His clients bring him on board primarily to look for undisclosed conflicts of interest, hidden and excessive fees and violations of law, he said.
    He also files suit to recover money for retirees. “We focus on Wall Street ripping off Main Street [pension funds] or causing regulators to take actions that result in recoveries to investors or retirement plan participants,” he said.
    Three of his forensic investigations were crowdfunded, which gives cash-strapped retirement plan participants money to hire him. Siedle plays no role in setting up the crowdfunding.
    Crowdfunding financed two of three investigations Siedle conducted in Rhode Island.

Pension ‘reform’ increased risk
    When Gina Raimondo assumed office as Rhode Island general treasurer in 2011, she pushed for a controversial overhaul of the state’s $8 billion pension fund that shifted a quarter of the retirees’ assets into hedge funds, private equity firms and other “alternative investments” to obtain better investment returns. In another effort to shore up the pension fund, retired employees’ annual cost-of-living adjustment increases were eliminated and current employees were moved into a hybrid pension system that has features of 401(k)s.
    As government workers protested the cuts, Council 94 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees hired Siedle to evaluate whether the move into high-fee and higher-risk hedge funds was draining the pension fund.
    In a scathing 2013 forensic report titled “Rhode Island Public Pension Reform: Wall Street’s License to Steal,” Siedle sharply criticized Raimondo’s investment strategy, saying the state’s hedge fund portfolio delivered returns that significantly trailed low-fee stock index funds and cost the pension fund $2 billion in preventable losses.
    “The treasurer has emerged as the leading national advocate of a disingenuous form of public pension ‘reform’ which involves slashing workers’ benefits and thwarting public access to information regarding the riskiest of pension investments while, in secret, dramatically increasing the risks to retirement plans and the fees they pay to Wall Street,” his report said.
    Raimondo, now the state’s governor, and other state officials have strongly disputed Siedle’s findings, but the state is divesting its hedge fund portfolio.
    Members of the Rhode Island Retired Teachers Association, which hired Siedle in 2015, are now pinning their hopes on requests he made to the SEC and FBI for an investigation into possible criminal mismanagement of the pension fund.
    Diane Bucci, the association’s legislative chair, praises Siedle’s efforts on the teachers’ behalf.
    “He has really stayed with us,” she said. “He felt the same injustice for us as we did. He gave us courage.”
    Siedle has been approached about running for Rhode Island attorney general in 2018. He said he is flattered to have been asked, and is considering it.
    Bucci thinks he would win significant support.
    “I think he has got a very good chance. He is well-spoken. He is well-versed on Rhode Island,” she said. “He has the vote of 60,000 state workers and their families and friends.”
    When problems with Jacksonville’s Police and Fire Pension Fund became too big to sweep under the carpet any longer, Councilman Bill Gulliford was instrumental in hiring Siedle to delve into the fund’s performance and management.
    Siedle’s 2015 forensic investigation was hampered by the pension board’s refusal to turn over financial and other public records. Yet he determined that the problems of the pension fund, which was $1.6 billion in the hole in 2014, were due to poor investment choices, mismanagement and board inattention to how much it paid to advisers.
    Poor investment decisions resulted in $370 million in underperformance losses, inadequate oversight resulted in paying excess investment management fees of $36 million over six years, and the fund lost about 30 percent of its value because the board did not heed credible warnings about its then-investment adviser, his report stated.
    The pension fund set up an investment advisory committee and hired a new executive director. The city has since found painful ways to shore up the fund, but new police and firefighters are hired with a significantly reduced package of pension benefits.
    “As you might expect, the people [Siedle] called out pushed back hard,” Gulliford said. “I think he had them dead to rights. A lot of those people are gone, and we are better off without them.”
    Gulliford is well satisfied with the decision to hire Siedle. “I still hold him in high regard,” he said. “He was excellent. He was a lot responsible for us finding some solutions.”
    Siedle’s reputation as an expert on forensic investigations of retirement plans has been noted in media reports, including an Oct. 22 New York Times article about allegations of improprieties by the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, known as TIAA.
    He also has drawn attention as a financial columnist for forbes.com. He drew on that work to write a book, titled How to Steal a Lot of Money, that he expects to self-publish later this year.
    Siedle’s whistleblowing will continue. Now it can be financially rewarding.
    The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act directed the SEC and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to reward whistleblowers who provide information that leads to successful enforcement actions resulting in sanctions over $1 million. It set aside about $450 million for the awards, which can range from 10 percent to 30 percent of recoveries.
    The Internal Revenue Service and Department of Justice also have whistleblower programs.
    “The nation benefits when it becomes possible to do well — even better than the crooks — by doing good,” Siedle wrote in a forbes.com column.
    While some might wonder if whistleblower programs could be imperiled by President Donald Trump’s administration, Siedle doesn’t think so.
    “I think there is broad consensus among fiscal conservatives and social progressives that whistleblower programs pay substantial dividends to society and that these programs should be supported,” he said. “While the Trump administration has gripes about many Dodd-Frank provisions, it is my understanding whistleblower programs are secure.”

It’s that time of year again, when full and new moon phases combine with the moon’s position to give us higher than usual tides and flooding.
Oct. 6: Driving down Brooks Lane in Delray Beach was a challenge.

Oct. 6:  A school of mullet reaches grass on a property on the north edge of Lake Boca Raton.

Oct. 6: Debris from Hurricane Irma and high water combined to make Marine Way in Delray Beach difficult to navigate.

Oct. 20: A mosquito sprayer and a pool man had to cope with standing water on Inlet Cay Drive in Ocean Ridge.

Photos by Tim Stepien, Michelle Quigley and
Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Flooding will peak again during king tides Nov. 4-6

Related Stories: Municipalities in mutual talks on response to sea-level rise | Delray-based cruise provides education on sea walls’ vulnerability | Upset residents prompt repairs as drainage woes peak on Ocean Ridge island | Editor's Note: King tides remind us we need to plan and adapt

Boynton Beach flood workshop
When: 5:30 to 7 p.m., Nov. 8
Where: Intracoastal Park Clubhouse, 2240 N. Federal Highway
What: Information available on flooding during storms, high tides and sea-level rise. The new FEMA flood maps will be displayed.

King tides create more than 8 inches of water at the base of Clara Caldwell’s driveway on Oct. 20. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

    The Inlet Cay community in Ocean Ridge started off in the late 1960s as a collaboration between engineers and nature in the Intracoastal wetlands off the town’s western shore.
    The engineers hauled in mountains of fill, dredged out canals for boat docks and manufactured buildable ground where there was none. Nature held up its end with stunning and mostly unspoiled waterfront views.
    The result was a tidy 25-acre island, cut sharp as a jigsaw puzzle piece, only a 30-foot bridge ride from the shore. Today the neighborhood has some 60 homes, most valued between $2 million and $3 million.
    Nobody talked about sea rise back in the ’60s. But then, nobody likes to talk about it now.
    The words never came up during an hourlong discussion at the October Town Commission meeting, when Inlet Cay residents complained of recurring drainage problems that have persisted for decades, despite the town’s persistent efforts to solve them.
    Clara Caldwell, who has owned a home at the end of Spanish River Drive on the western side of the island since 2002, spoke for a group of beleaguered neighbors who endure flooded driveways and lawns several times a year.
    “The worst day ever was Oct. 2,” Caldwell said. “It was impossible to enter or exit the driveway.”
    Besides Spanish River, the street flooding hit nearby Bimini Cove Drive. Caldwell said a neighbor took out his canoe. She said the flooding has become a worsening safety issue, not only trapping residents in their houses but providing an environment for mosquitoes and disease.
    “This is a very problematic area,” Caldwell said.
    It turns out a confluence of events on Oct. 2 created what amounts to a perfect tide: the Earth, moon and sun aligned to create a king tide. An easterly wind kept water from moving out to sea. Heavy rains fell, saturating the ground, and Lake Okeechobee rose above 17 feet, forcing water managers to increase discharge rates.
    Mayor Geoff Pugh said the Intracoastal rose about 3 feet higher than usual, above the one-way valves designed to carry water off Inlet Cay. Pugh said the “amount of water pressure was phenomenal” and overwhelmed 12-inch drainage pipes.
    The mayor said that a town contractor who inspected the valves and pipes later in October found damage, barnacle buildup and obstructions that kept them from working properly. Pugh said he’s optimistic that repairs made to the pipes and a more aggressive maintenance schedule will solve problems for the short term.
    Long-term solutions get a lot more complicated. The commissioners are expected to hire an outside engineering firm to assess the chronic drainage problems on Spanish River Drive and elsewhere in the town.
    Caldwell and her neighbors support going forward with the study, but other residents have told the town they would just as soon not. Too much knowledge could come with unwelcome consequences.
    Previous engineering reports have suggested that parts of Ocean Ridge have been slowly sinking over time. Contractors who have worked in the Inlet Cay neighborhood have reported problems with high groundwater levels and unstable, mushy soil. The island, after all, was manufactured mostly with fill.
    The results of another, more definitive engineering study would put on the public record conclusions about the manmade island and its future that might not be favorable to property values.
    Caldwell told commissioners she wants them to be forthcoming about the extent of her neighborhood’s drainage problems. Residents can handle the truth, she said.
    “Start telling us the facts and not the fables,” she said. “Don’t tell us what you think we want to hear. Tell us what is actually happening because it is very, very important to us that we prepare for it.”

A cruise to educate the public about king tides took place on the same day seating areas and the dock at Veterans Park flooded, as happens with king tides. Michelle Quigley/The Coastal Star

By Jane Smith

    In Delray Beach, most residents know that Veterans Park, Marine Way and the city’s marina along the Intracoastal Waterway flood during king tides.
    But some barrier island streets also are prone to flooding, according to Jeffrey Needle, the city’s stormwater engineer. Brooks Lane, White Drive, Rhodes Villa Avenue and Hibiscus Road also can flood during high tides and especially during king tides, he said during a cruise along the Intracoastal aboard the Lady Atlantic yacht.
    Ana Puszkin-Chevlin, the city’s sustainability officer, organized the Oct. 11 cruise to educate the public about king tides — the highest of the high tides. Sea walls are best seen from the water, she said.
    The owners of the Lady Atlantic offered the yacht, staff and light bites free to the city.
    In Delray Beach, the next king tides will be 8:41 a.m. Nov. 5 and 9:32 a.m. Nov. 6, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website.
    Delray Beach has several projects underway to address tidal flooding and sea-level rise.
    In Veterans Park, Delray Beach is upgrading sea walls and replacing docks.
    The city’s Community Redevelopment Agency is paying the estimated $643,700 for the work that includes raising the sea walls to 20 inches above the average water level in the Intracoastal and making the sea walls level for the entire 400-foot length to the Atlantic Avenue bridge. That work should be finished in January.
    On the south side of Atlantic Avenue, design work for the stretch along the city’s marina will be finished in the next few months. Construction will begin in the next financial year, which starts in October 2018.
    The third piece, along Marine Way, will be complicated, Needle said.
    The one-block stretch — from Atlantic to Southeast First Street — has a roadbed decayed from tidal flooding, private and unauthorized docks, a sea wall that is no longer usable and various regulatory agencies involved, he said.
    The Wantman Group has a $284,373 contract for a conceptual plan and site analysis.
    “We need to find out what’s allowed before we meet with the private property and business owners along Marine Way,” Needle said.
 The public meetings could start as soon as mid-November, he said. The design work should be finished in mid-March.
    Separately, the city will start a sea wall vulnerability analysis of the entire Intracoastal Waterway, estimated at 21.4 miles, Needle said. The city owns less than a mile of the sea walls.
    On Oct. 17, the City Commission awarded $198,473 to Aptim Environmental & Infrastructure of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for the analysis. That work will be finished by the end of June.
    The goal is to create a minimum sea wall height and a sea wall ordinance for property owners along the Intracoastal, Needle said.
    Also aboard the Lady Atlantic, Nancy Gassman explained how Fort Lauderdale created its sea wall ordinance. As the assistant public works director for sustainability, she told the capacity crowd about how the city, known as the Venice of America, was able to pass its ordinance.
“It was clear that a minimum sea wall level was needed to address nuisance flooding,” she said.
    In 2016, the city set a minimum height for its sea walls at 3.9 feet above the high tide water mark. All new sea walls must meet the standard, she said. Rebuilt ones where more than 50 percent of the sea wall is reconstructed will have to comply.
    By 2035, the city wants to have all sea walls at that height, she said.
    Fort Lauderdale was among the first to use one-way check valves to control tidal flooding.
    To make sure the tides flow properly through its valves, the city maintains them quarterly, Gassman said. The valves also are checked before every king tide to clean out barnacles and mangrove roots that block the water flow.

Oct. 6: Lake Boca Raton crested over a seawall, flooding the Por La Mar neighborhood in Boca Raton and allowing mullet and other marine life to swim into the streets and yards of homes. 

By Rich Pollack

    With king tides, Hurricane Irma and torrential thunderstorms still fresh in the minds of residents, a small group of representatives from area coastal communities is meeting informally in hopes of working together to address rising-water issues caused by weather-related events.
    Known as the Southeast Palm Beach County Micro-regional Group, the representatives from small towns — among them Ocean Ridge and Highland Beach — are joining forces with members from Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach and Lantana to share information and ideas and perhaps make policy recommendations that multiple communities can adopt.
    “Our goal is to have cities and towns work together to develop solutions related to climate change and sea-level rise,” says Nancy Schneider, the volunteer facilitator for the group and a senior program officer with the Institute for Sustainable Communities. “Sea-level rise and flooding are top issues.”
    All the communities involved in the group share a common denominator — the Intracoastal Waterway — and previously took an individual approach to addressing rising-water issues, rather than regularly communicating with one another.
    Yet, according to Schneider, actions of one community could negatively affect another. For example, rising water levels could cause a septic tank in one community to overflow into waterways shared by neighboring communities.
“What one community does impacts another,” she said. “We need to take a cohesive approach rather than an individual approach.”
    During an informal meeting last month, the second time the group gathered, representatives from the coastal communities discussed ways to share information and best practices, and communicate a coordinated message. They also discussed working together to educate the public about the impact of rising water levels and what can be done.
    The group discussed the possibility of creating an informational brochure that could be distributed to residents in all of the communities, presenting a consistent message and sharing costs. Members also plan to bring speakers to their every-other-month meetings who can provide information beneficial to all communities.
Ocean Ridge Commissioner Don MaGruder, who attended last month’s meeting, believes his town can benefit from hearing how communities are addressing rising water issues.
“You don’t want to waste a lot of time reinventing the wheel,” he said. “There’s a lot to learn from what other cities and towns have done to educate the public and mitigate the problems.”
    In addition to sharing what’s been done in the past, the group talked about sharing studies rather than having each city or town hire consultants to do similar research.
    Delray Beach, for example, is having a coastal engineering firm study seawalls in the community and make recommendations on how they can be improved. While the conclusions will be specific to Delray Beach, there may be findings that could benefit other communities.
    “We want to share that information,” said Ana Puszkin-Chevlin, sustainability officer for Delray Beach, which is one of the local leaders in addressing sea-level rise.
    In fact, Schneider says, the local group was formed after Delray Beach’s Rising Waters Task Force recommended it in a  report to the City Commission.
     “The recommendations in the Rising Waters Task Force’s report could be beneficial to all the communities in the micro-regional group,” she said.
    The area group, Schneider said, is a localized way to gain momentum for implementation on the Regional Climate Action Plan, the guiding document developed by the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact for all of southeast Florida.
    “As a result of the cooperation within the micro-regional collaborative, cities will be better able to implement the regional plan recommendations by sharing best practices with city neighbors, being more efficient through economies of scale and taking a uniform approach to actual implementation,” Schneider said.

Oct. 6: Boca Raton resident Ralph Marazzo used a towel to dry out the rear foot-well of his rental car parked at the west end of Sweetwater Lane in Boca Raton. Not only did the high water created by the annual king tides drench the inside of the car, it also shorted out the battery

Oct. 5: King tide conditions in the parking lot of the Boynton Beach Marina made it hard to see where the parking lot ends and the Intracoastal begins.

Photos by Tim Stepien and
Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Sallie James

    IBM is often credited with cementing the place on the map for this little city on the south end of Palm Beach County. And the company and an initial group of 12 engineers then went on to change the world.
    “We were given the job of coming up with a personal computer,” recalled retired IBM engineer Dave Bradley, 68, one of the “dirty dozen” IBM engineers who in 1980 were given the top-secret job of developing the company’s first personal computer.
    “We were all believers. Many of us were personal computer owners who had built our own or had purchased one. Each of the 12 had a particular expertise,” he said. “Mine was hardware/software interface, the code that makes the hardware work.”
    The PC prototype they conceived, designed and shipped in a year’s time revolutionized the world.
    Bradley cracked a roguish grin and modestly described his most publicized contribution to the computer world last month during IBM’s 50th-anniversary celebration of moving to town.
    “I invented ‘control-alt-delete,’ ” he said, chuckling about the key combination that reboots PCs worldwide.
    Speaking against a backdrop of vintage IBM computers, historical photographs and a room filled with former IBM employees, Bradley recalled IBM’s start. It was a time of hush-hush glory days when IBM set up shop in what has since been renamed the Boca Raton Innovation Campus at 5000 T-Rex Ave., where last month’s celebration took place.
    The group eventually grew to include 50-60 more engineers, and that was just the beginning.
    “As an engineer, it was the dream project,” Bradley said. “When IBM’s PC was announced, [the workforce] went from about 500 people to 10,000. We took over almost all of the office space in Boca.”
    Bradley made headlines years ago when he joined Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and several other pioneers of the PC industry at an event celebrating IBM’s 20th anniversary. Bradley was asked to talk about the control-alt-delete command.
    After explaining that he created the shortcut to solve a problem, he quipped as Gates looked on: “I have to share the credit. I may have invented it, but I think Bill made it famous.”
    In 2002, Bradley’s “control-alt-delete” appeared on Jeopardy! in the category of “computer history.” The answer was, “IBM engineer Dave Bradley is called the father of this multikey combination.”

IBM led Boca’s growth
    The PC put Boca on the map, said Susan Gillis, curator at the Boca Raton Historical Society.
    “It brought a lot of employees to town with the families. Because this became the center for PC operations which revolutionized the world, it was very exciting,” Gillis said. “Back in the day, they called this the ‘Silicon Beach.’”
    And security at the time was tighter than tight.
    “It was like the Pentagon — you couldn’t go in there,” Gillis said of IBM’s old headquarters.
“Everything was so top secret. It’s only in hindsight we get to see how important those baby steps were. The PC and her descendants had their birth in Boca.”
    At the time, the engineers who worked on it had no inkling of its future impact.
    “It was all even a very top-secret thing in IBM — you couldn’t talk about it. Rumors started,” Bradley recalled. “I hoped it was going to be successful — you always hoped things would be successful. I didn’t think it was going to change the world.”
    IBM former senior executive Peter Martinez urged those who attended the anniversary celebration to consider what life without the PC might have been like. “The internet would have never happened,” Martinez said.
    What did happen is that the PC became a standard for distribution around the world; it became a multibillion-dollar business and it transformed every other industry related to technology because of the volumes that were generated, Martinez noted.
    Retired IBM engineer Fred Goetz, 89, another of the “dirty dozen,” recalled how the 12 engineers got their marching orders. It was a convoluted path.
    “I’ll tell you the way it happened, the way it started. We were introducing a dumb terminal that talked to the mainframe. Our chairman of the board said that’s a good machine but it’s not going to stop Apple [computers] from eroding our beaches. He gave us two weeks. The team came back to Boca and we got the best guys for the different aspects of the computer.”
    But when they presented their ideas to the board, they got a thumbs down.
    “They said the ‘B’ in IBM is for business, not toys, so they voted it down. They didn’t want anything to do with it because they thought it was a toy,” Goetz recalled.
But CEO Frank Cary was intrigued.
    “He said, ‘I think there is something to this.’ He said, ‘I have to get out in 11 months because I will be 60 — you have 11 months to do this because my signature is good for millions of dollars,’” Goetz said.
    “So, we came back down to Boca to get to work. We did it. And then the illustrious forecasters who were mainly mainframe guys said you guys will only sell 50,000 of those systems over five years,” Goetz recalled laughing. “In three weeks we had 60,000 orders and then all hell broke loose — we had to find vendors, we had to find people.”
    The rest is history.
    In addition to developing the PC, IBM employees helped build Boca Raton Hospital, founded Temple Beth El and other houses of worship and raised the standard of education throughout the city because they wanted good schools for their own children, Gillis noted.
    Although the company had moved its facilities away by the mid-1990s, IBM made an indelible mark on Boca Raton.
    “The employees put in many, many volunteer hours all over town,” Gillis said. “They contributed to the quality of life in all aspects.”

Disasters spark interfaith service

By Rich Pollack

It was a gathering born out of tragedy, disaster and divisiveness. Yet when the interfaith service “Peace, Unity and Thanksgiving” in Highland Beach last month was over, many of the 400 people who attended walked away feeling hopeful and connected to one another despite the impact of horrific events — hurricanes, a mass shooting, and earthquakes and fires — that surrounded them.  
“This was one of the most significant events that occurred in the town in the last decade,” said Highland Beach Vice Mayor Bill Weitz. “There was a real bonding.”  
The Oct. 18 service, sponsored by the town and by St. Lucy Catholic Church, which hosted the event, not only brought residents closer together, it helped its two sponsors strengthen their relationship, which hit a hurdle or two earlier this year.  
In January, the Town Commission voted to move its municipal election from the church, which had served as the polling location for decades, to Town Hall. Several commissioners at the time said they thought it would be better for the town if the municipal election were not held in a place of worship. Now, however, it appears the town will move the election back to the church, in large part due to the strengthening of ties during the service.  
During a meeting late last month, commissioners indicated they would now support holding the March 2018 municipal election back at the church, which has more parking than Town Hall and a spacious voting area available.  
In addition, town leaders tentatively agreed to have the church host Highland Beach’s annual Light Up the Holidays celebration next month, which has been in the Town Hall parking lot for several years.
 “Prayer always produces results,” said the Rev. D. Brian Horgan, priest at St. Lucy Catholic Church. “When people pray together, barriers tend to fall away and we realize we’re not as different as we thought we were.”  
Horgan said the church and the town always had a good relationship and that the strengthening of that relationship during and after the service will benefit the town.  
“We’re constantly seeking ways to bring unity into a world that’s fractured by fear and division,” Horgan said.   
The service was a result of conversations between Horgan and Highland Beach Commissioner Rhoda Zelniker.
Rabbi Aviva Bass, of Temple Sinai in Delray Beach, and Dr. Bassem Alhalabi, president of Islamic Center of Boca Raton, joined the priest in leadership during the service.  
Community members were called upon to read passages honoring many faiths, including Hindu, Mormon, Buddhist and recognizing Native American traditions.  Following the hourlong service, guests gathered at the parish hall, where they shared food prepared by residents and the church. A collection at the service and church contribution raised $1,000 for the American Red Cross for disaster victims.
“We had an opportunity to make new friends and get to know one another,” Horgan said.  
The idea for an interfaith service had been discussed years before by Zelniker and Horgan but never came to pass.   
Soon after the shootings in Las Vegas and after Hurricane Irma and two others, as well as the earthquakes in Mexico and wildfires in California, the pastor reached out to Zelniker.  
“He said, ‘This is the right time,’” Zelniker recalled. “All the events had left people feeling sad. We wanted to unite everyone, so we could pray for peace and all the people who were suffering as a result of the disasters.” She said by the time everyone left, there was a strong sense of connection.  
“It was unbelievable,” she said. “The love in the room was exceptional.”  
For 16-year resident Louise Mirkin, the service was uplifting and calming at the same time. “I left feeling hopeful that people really could get along,” she said. “I saw that there was a true spirit of unity in the town.”  
Zelniker came away with a similar impression.  
“It was just a beautiful service,” she said. “For me, it was the best day ever in Highland Beach.”

By Mary Hladky

    The Boca Raton City Council has made one thing very clear: The Mizner Park Amphitheater is safe — for now.
    Media reports about a developer’s offer to build a 1,500-seat indoor performing arts center within nearly 30 city-owned acres around City Hall in exchange for building as many as 400 residential units where the amphitheater now sits sparked fears among some residents that the outdoor venue is facing the wrecking ball.
    Not so, council members, sitting as the Community Redevelopment Agency, said at their Sept. 25 meeting.
    “That is a beloved place,” Andrea Levine O’Rourke said. “Everyone needs to calm down. It is not going to happen at this point.”
    “Just because someone makes an offer doesn’t mean we are entertaining it, let alone accepting it,” Scott Singer said.
    “I will pledge there will never be a time when there is not an amphitheater or a venue where we can have the kind of events we are having now,” Robert Weinroth said.
The issue had not gone away by the CRA’s Oct. 23 meeting.
“There still seems to be some confusion,” Singer said. “It’s not going anywhere. We’ve consistently said this and we’ll keep getting that message out there because people are coming up to me concerned that our wonderful events, our free events at Mizner Park Amphitheater are going anywhere. They are not.”
    Before there can be any response to the offer by The Related Group, the city must decide what should be built in the downtown campus where City Hall and the police station now sit. That process will take at least several more months.
    “It is too premature to enter into those discussions” with Related until the council decides on the components of the downtown campus, Mayor Susan Haynie said in October.
    “Everyone loves our amphitheater where it is,” she said. “At this time, it is where it will stay.”
    Council members heard a report on Oct. 10 from consultant Song + Associates on what residents want the downtown campus to be. The consultant met with residents on June 21 to get their input.
    The residents gave no clear verdict on the Mizner Park Amphitheater. A slight majority of 53 percent said it should be replaced by an amphitheater in the campus, according to the consultant’s report. But asked more generally about an amphitheater, 62 percent said they would like one in the campus.
    Sixty-five percent wanted a performing arts center in the campus, and 93 percent wanted a parking garage. A large outdoor gathering place and a new community center drew majority support. Most wanted existing baseball fields and a tennis center moved out of the area.
    But only 74 residents attended the meeting.  To get more input, the council asked that an online survey be posted on the city’s website and social media accounts. That happened immediately after the meeting.
    Another option has emerged for a performing arts center. Event producer AEG, which books acts for the Mizner Park Amphitheater, has proposed building one in the downtown campus and more recently at Countess de Hoernle Park on Spanish River Boulevard.
    Haynie, who has met with AEG, said she does not support a performing arts center on Spanish River Boulevard.
    “If we are going to have a performing arts center, it should be downtown,” she said.
    Glenn Gromann, an independent consultant with Related, said the developer’s proposal was misconstrued.
    “There never was a plan to get rid of the amphitheater, only to move it someplace else,” he said. “Related can easily put another amphitheater on the City Hall campus with the performing arts center.”
    Offers, he added, “can be modified, amended or changed. Offers are flexible. There is a lot we can do.”
    Related’s July 11 offer was to build the performing arts center and adjacent parking garage in the downtown campus. In return, the city would give Related about 3.6 city-owned acres in the northeast section of Mizner Park, where the developer would build residential units, retail space and a parking garage that the public could also use.

By Steve Plunkett

    Developer GL Homes, which out of the blue offered $73 million last fall to purchase the city’s western golf course, was the winning bidder Oct. 24 to perhaps seal the deal.
    City Council members, clearly unhappy that GL reduced its offer to $65 million, nevertheless chose the builder over rival Lennar LLC, which was willing to pay $73 million minus contingencies that could have cut the price by unknown millions.
    “We are risk-averse as a municipality,” Mayor Susan Haynie said. “I understand that most developers are risk-averse as well.”
    Larry Portnoy, a GL Homes vice president, said his company revised its offer after learning that the golf course, beyond the city limits on Glades Road just west of Florida’s Turnpike, was only 188 acres, not the 194 acres GL thought. The company also didn’t know about a 300-foot restrictive covenant from a neighboring subdivision that would slice 15 more acres off any redevelopment, he said.
    Worse, Portnoy said, were changes this summer by the Army Corps of Engineers regarding wetlands and a new interpretation by Palm Beach County officials of rules for workforce housing. He could not predict how the changes might limit building on the golf course.
    Lennar also had no predictions but made its offer contingent on Boca Raton’s paying any costs for workforce housing requirements and any amount over $500,000 for environmental remediation. It also was contingent on the county’s granting development approvals. Deputy City Manager George Brown said there was no way to estimate those reductions beforehand.
    Most members of the public had left the meeting by the time public comment started about 10:45 p.m., and no one spoke for or against.
    Robert Weinroth was the first City Council member to chastise GL Homes’ lowered price, noting the builder was “not new to the game.”
    “I can’t accept the fact that the changing conditions that you saw from the original offer caused a $13 million haircut,” Weinroth said. “Can’t you do better?”
    GL Homes began the evening offering $60 million for the golf course. Under special procedures the council set up, bidders were allowed to raise their offers as many times as they wanted. GL rose to $65 million but cut its nonrefundable deposit in half, to $2 million; Lennar, whose nonrefundable deposit would have been $100,000, did not budge.
    Deputy Mayor Jeremy Rodgers said he was not happy with either offer. “I think no-sell is still a viable alternative,” Rodgers said, holding out hope that GL will sweeten the offer before the council makes the deal official this month.
    Meanwhile, the Greater Boca Raton Beach & Park District is pursuing its plan to buy the private Ocean Breeze golf course in the north end of the city from Lennar for $24 million.
    The city agreed in September to issue municipal bonds to cover the purchase and let the district repay the money.

By Rich Pollack

Vice Mayor Bill Weitz wants to know if underground power lines are a feasible option for the town.
Still reeling from the small town being without electricity after Hurricane Irma for as long as eight days in some sections, Weitz at the Oct. 31 meeting asked fellow commissioners to support an effort to explore the feasibility of converting the town to a system of underground utilities.
“We need to know what the benefits would be and what the downsides would be,” he said.
Another question that would need to be answered, according to Weitz, is who would pay for bringing electric lines underground, which can be costly — up to an estimated $1 million per mile.
Weitz said he found information in his research indicating that Florida Power & Light has been more open since 2005 to providing incentives for communities to place power lines underground.
“We need to just gather data to see if it’s a viable option,” Weitz said. “Once we have the data, we can discuss the information with residents to see if this is something they want.”
There are two meetings set to talk to FPL representatives.
The first was scheduled for Nov. 1 for a Town Hall meeting with residents.  
“Our focus is on improving the service delivery to our residents,” Weitz said.
Town Manager Valerie Oakes said town staff is scheduled to meet with FPL representatives later this month to discuss a variety of topics related to the town’s service.
She said the possibility of providing underground service likely would be one of the issues discussed.  
Weitz, who is also on a committee exploring underground service for the Beach Condominium Association of Boca Raton and Highland Beach, said he thinks there could be a long-term benefit to Highland Beach residents should power be provided below ground.
“The goal is to maximize reliability,” he said.   
 While FPL restored electricity quickly to two-thirds of the town’s residents, it took much longer for residents in the southern portion of town to get their electricity back.
Many in that area were without power for six days, while some homeowners waited more than a week.
“I don’t think that’s acceptable,” Weitz said.