Florida (left) may import sand from the Bahamas for use in beach renourishment. The light blue areas of this satellite image show the shallow bottom around the Bahamas. Photo by NASA

Related Story: Manalapan vows to fight South Palm Beach sand retention plan

By Cheryl Blackerby

    Beach sand is constantly on the move, generally north to south, and is as fluid as the ocean that pounds it. Most Floridians had never really considered this geological phenomenon, but they have learned the hard way that barrier islands are constantly reshaped by winds, water currents and development.
    In recent decades, coastal residents noticed that sand was leaving the shore and not coming back. Waves, particularly those powered by tropical storms and hurricanes, carved out cliffs in formerly flat shores and washed sand out from underneath high-rise condos and beachside houses.
    When faced with thinning beaches and encroaching ocean water, resourceful beach towns simply dug up offshore sand and pumped it onto the beaches, grumbling about costs as the big dredges did their work, but doing whatever it took to keep the beaches nice and wide for tourists.
    Then, the unthinkable happened: The offshore sand ran out.
    No longer were they looking at expensive dredging for sand, they were looking at no sand.
    Miami-Dade and Broward counties have depleted their offshore sand, and the end is in sight for Palm Beach County.
    South Palm Beach has no sand it can dredge and shoot onto the narrow strip of shore that’s mostly walkable only at low tide. Boca Raton may have only 20 years’ worth of sand left barring more frequent tropical storms and hurricanes.
    It turns out that sand is not infinite. The sand that can be dredged offshore is from a slender ribbon of sandy floor between the shore and reefs. Just beyond the reefs is a steep drop-off that’s too deep for even the largest dredges.
    Coastal residents face new hard truths — sand is more than a place to stick an umbrella on a sunny day. It is the only barrier between a relentless and unforgiving ocean and seaside towns, beachfront mansions, high-rise condos and roads.
    Broward County already has started raising State Road A1A two feet when sections of the road are rebuilt because of coastal flooding.
During storms and high tides, ocean water has rushed underneath buildings, exposing foundations and supports and flooding streets.
    Wildlife, too, is suffering from eroding sand. Beaches are a nesting ground for endangered sea turtles and crucial feeding areas for sea birds.

Eyes across the sea for sand
    Sea oats and dunes placed to keep the ocean at bay are no longer up to the job. Seaside towns are looking at options and they aren’t good. Inland sand is expensive to mine and transport. Man-made remedies for capturing sand, such as groins, cause myriad problems.
    The last resort is buying foreign sand, and South Florida is looking 60 miles east to the glorious white-sand banks of the Bahamas. The latest idea from elected officials and perhaps the only option left is buying sand from the Bahamas and transporting it by barge across the Gulf Stream to South Florida.
    But buying foreign sand is illegal. Two bills in the U.S. Congress hope to change that. The Sand Acquisition, Nourishment and Development Act, introduced by Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach with fellow members of the Florida congressional delegation, and a companion bill in the Senate introduced by Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio would repeal a law that does not allow communities to buy sand from the Bahamas and other foreign countries to replenish shorelines.
    Bahamian sand could alleviate the high price of trucking in sand for counties like Miami-Dade and Broward that have depleted their usable sand offshore, Frankel said, and would mitigate potential legal battles over domestic sand sources between northern counties, which have relatively more offshore sand, and southern Florida counties. 
    Most South Florida coastal towns have endorsed the bills.
    The stakes are high. “Replenishing our shorelines protects our jobs, our environment and our property,” said Frankel.
    “It’s time to lift the antiquated federal prohibition on replenishing Florida beaches with foreign sand,” said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston. “The current law hurts Florida taxpayers through all the existing long-distance hauling costs involved. Our beaches are not only vital civic treasures for our residents, they’re also a pillar of Florida’s tourism economy. We need to give our local communities more tools to keep our beaches healthy and attractive. The SAND Act will do that.”

Options are waning
    Coastal towns also are looking at ways to hold on to any sand that comes their way. Of the few possibilities, groins are getting the most attention. Groins are installed to trap sand closer to shore, but they also can starve towns to the south of sand that would have flowed in their direction.
    Hillsboro Beach in Broward County has sued seeking damages and legal fees from Deerfield Beach over Deerfield’s groins. Hillsboro claims the groins have caused millions of dollars’ worth of erosion of Hillsboro’s beaches.
    Manalapan Mayor Keith Waters says his town is ready to do “whatever it takes” to stop South Palm Beach from installing groins.
    And even with the installation of groins, towns will still have to pay for more sand as they put in the groins. It will take roughly 80,000 cubic yards of sand to cover the seven groins once the South Palm Beach shoreline stabilization plan is completed, according to project engineers. That is enough to fill more than 5,000 standard commercial dump trucks.
    Engineers say the project has a life span of 50 years and the town will have to set aside $200,000 a year to cover the cost of replenishing sand that washes way. That price is sure to go up as sand becomes scarcer.
    Where South Palm Beach will find the sand it will need for the next half-century and how much it will cost decades from now are questions no one can answer.
    “There is going to be a sand shortage, that’s for sure,” said South Palm Beach Mayor Bonnie Fischer. “It’s good to look to the future and look for other sand sources.”
    Fischer supports the efforts in Congress to allow the importation of foreign sand but worries about cost.
    “Sand from the Bahamas is expensive, basically because of the expense of transporting it here,” she said.  
    Sand mined from Central Florida, called “upland sand,” is also expensive even though it is generally superior in quality to offshore sand, she said.  
    “The granules of upland sand are a better match for turtles and more like what’s here. Dredged sand often has too much clay in it,” Fischer said.
    Jennifer Bistyga, coastal program manager for the city of Boca Raton, says the city has depleted the offshore “borrow areas” that have been dredged in the past.
    “We are now doing a geotechnical search looking for more offshore sand, and we  have identified new sources,” Bistyga said. “We hope to have sand for 20 years.”
    The lack of offshore sand in the future, she said, is a “definite concern.”

Competition for sand
    Meanwhile, sand worldwide is becoming scarce. Used in concrete, glass, computer microchips and roads, sand is our most essential natural resource after air and water, and we’re running out, mostly because of exploding development. We’re using sand faster than it is produced — the erosion that makes sand takes thousands of years.
    Desert sand is not conducive to making building materials such as concrete and glass and blows away on beaches, so the world relies on sand and gravel, called aggregates, from seashores and river beds.
    A case in point is the city of Dubai in the desert country of United Arab Emirates, which ran out of marine sand and has to import sand from Australia for its mammoth developments, according to the United Nations Environment Programme.
    “A conservative estimate for the world consumption of aggregates exceeds 40 billion tons a year. This is twice the yearly amount of sediment carried by all the rivers of the world,” according to United Nations research.
    Buying sand may be only buying time, some city officials say. Bahamian sand is a stopgap measure. But it’s the only game in town at present.
    “There’s a diminishing return when it comes to bringing in sand — there’s only so much of it out there. Who knows what it’s going to cost 10 or 20 years from now?” asked Fischer, the South Palm Beach mayor.
    But since the dawn of tourism in the Sunshine State, South Florida has been known for its golden sand beaches, enriched with every turquoise Atlantic Ocean wave that tumbled on it bringing sand from somewhere else. And towns will hang onto it as long as they can.
    — Dan Moffett contributed to this story

The great majority of Palm Beach County’s 45 miles of beachfront is considered critically eroded (red). 2015 map by Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Related Story: Will our next beach renourishment use Bahamian sand?

By Dan Moffett

    Manalapan is stepping up efforts to block a proposed beach stabilization project that would install concrete groins to capture sand in South Palm Beach.
    On July 18, Manalapan Mayor Keith Waters and Town Manager Linda Stumpf met with Palm Beach County Commissioner Steven Abrams to outline the town’s opposition to the project.
    Waters told Abrams what he’s been telling his residents: The town is prepared to do “whatever it takes” to prevent the installation of groins that will “steal” sand from Manalapan.
    The project, which county environmental managers hope to begin in November 2018, is going through a complicated permitting phase now that requires approvals from federal and state agencies. Waters said the town intends to intervene in that process and argue against granting the permits.
    After the meeting, Abrams sent an email to Rob Robbins, director of the county’s Environmental Resources Management department, which oversees the project. Abrams’ remarks reflect the conflicted positions officials find themselves in as neighbors turn against neighbors in disputes over sand for their beaches.
    “I am in the middle of this as the district commissioner for both them and South Palm Beach, as well as my responsibility to protect county interests,” Abrams wrote. “It would certainly be in everyone’s interest to resolve this matter without resort(ing) to any adversarial proceedings.”
    Robbins responded to Abrams with a call for patience:
    “Our applications are not yet complete and we have at least many months to go before they will be complete,” Robbins wrote in an email. “What I’m trying to convey is that the town should not feel rushed to intervene.”
    Robbins said, “We hate to see the town spend money defending themselves from the county.”
    Manalapan’s opposition is based largely on what the county and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers don’t know about what the groins’ impact would be on the beaches south of South Palm Beach.

    The fear is the concrete devices would greatly disrupt the natural north-to-south flow of sand, capturing so much that there’s not enough left to replenish the beaches in Manalapan and its southern neighbors. Waters points to Broward County, where Hillsboro Beach is dealing with severe erosion and is suing northern neighbor Deerfield for using groins to trap sand.
    Stumpf says South Palm Beach has concern about the sand transfer station at the Boynton Beach Inlet, technically known as the Lake Worth Inlet. The man-made entry to the Intracoastal Waterway interrupts the natural flow of sand south. The purpose of the transfer station is to mechanically pick up sand from the north side of the inlet and pump it to Ocean Ridge on the south side.
    “If we don’t get sand in Manalapan,” Stumpf says, “then we don’t have anything to transfer to Ocean Ridge.”
    Manalapan officials warn of a cascading effect in which sand flow dies at the inlet, starving beaches not only in Ocean Ridge, but in Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream and Delray Beach.
    Army engineers have offered little to allay this concern. In June 2016, the Corps released a 481-page Environmental Impact Study, detailing the plan and examining its potential effects. Manalapan was mentioned only 27 times, with nearly all of the references historical or perfunctory.
    “We’re willing to pay for our own study to show the damage this project could do,” Stumpf said.

ABOVE LEFT: Beach sand naturally follows the predominant tidal action ‘littoral drift’ south along our coast. Physical barriers like groins and inlet jetties slow that drift, depriving the neighbors to the south. Manalapan is required by a judge’s ruling to allow the county to pump sand across the Boynton Beach Inlet to prevent sand starvation in Ocean Ridge. Ocean Ridge also benefited from a 2015 renourishment project to widen the beach on the south side of the inlet.  
ABOVE RIGHT:  The town of Hillsboro Beach is suing the city of Deerfield Beach over the installation of groins along the Deerfield coast that are slowing the littoral drift and holding the sand captive. Google Earth photos

Hudson Holdings
The Delray Beach developer specializes in “bringing history back to life,” according to its website. Here’s a look at its properties outside Florida:

Louisville, Kentucky: Republic Building (built in 1912)  — Hudson paid slightly more than $3 million for it in summer of 2015; it has 11 stories and 62,370 square feet. Plans call for a boutique hotel with 110 rooms. JRA Architects filed a $143,470 lien in February. Status: Seeking construction financing that also will be used to pay off the lien.
Starks Building (built in 1902) — Hudson paid $14.25 million for it in spring of 2015; it has 14 stories and 350,000 square feet. Plans call for a luxury hotel with 260 rooms, 100 apartments, a ballroom and conference facilities, a coffee shop and at least one ground-floor restaurant. Wehr Constructors Inc. sued in August 2016 to collect $458,000 owed. Five liens filed for more than $851,500 owed. Status: Seeking construction financing that also will be used to pay the money owed.
Kansas City, Missouri: Mark Twain Tower (built in 1923) — Hudson paid $6.25 million for it in March 2016; it has 22 stories and 204,000 square feet. Hudson plans to preserve fifth-floor ballroom and swimming pool on seventh floor when the office tower is converted into a 154-unit apartment building, The Continental. Status: Seeking construction financing.
St. Louis: Railway Exchange Building (built in 1912)— Hudson paid $20.4 million for it in January after nine amended purchase agreements; it has 21 stories with 1.2 million square feet. Plans call for apartments, stores and a hotel. In June, two Boca Raton mortgage brokers sued, claiming they were not paid as promised for arranging a $10 million loan from a Hungarian company. Their lawsuit alleges that the money did not go to help the developers buy the Railway Exchange, that instead the money was misused. The brokers claim that the Midtown Delray Beach partners of George Marshall and Steven Michael and other business partners knew. Marshall could not be reached for comment and Michael declined to comment on the open lawsuit. Status: Settling an insurance claim for a water main break.
Cincinnati, Ohio: Textile Building (built in 1906) — Hudson paid $12 million in March 2016 for the 12-story, Renaissance Revival style building with 213,000 square feet. Hudson plans to turn it into a mix of uses and pursue Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credits. Status:  Seeking construction financing.
Cleveland: 925 Building (built in 1924)— Hudson paid $22 million in June 2015 for the 22-story building with 1.4 million square feet of space. It was mostly vacant. In February, Hudson secured a $34 million bridge loan from a New York lender. That loan is due next year. Plans call for a complex with 673 apartments, 279 high-end hotel rooms, office and business incubator space, and retail and event space. Hudson received $25 million in Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credits in December 2015. In January, the Cleveland City Council agreed to give the owner a share of the taxpayer dollars when the estimated $300 million development is finished. Status: Seeking construction financing.

SOURCES: County court records in Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio; and newspaper and business publications in those states and Florida.
— Research by Michelle Quigley and Jane Smith

By Steve Plunkett
    
The legal battle between Gulf Stream and town resident Martin O’Boyle dragged on in July as O’Boyle conducted a 90-minute deposition in his home and his son filed a motion seeking a “6-foot pile” of documents in a New Jersey lawyer’s office.
    Jonathan O’Boyle filed a notice July 19 of his intention to subpoena Camden, N.J., lawyer David Sufrin to get copies of “any and all” documents between Sufrin and Robert Sweetapple, Gulf Stream’s outside counsel handling public records disputes.
Sweetwater said talks with O’Boyle were at an impasse.
“Settlement negotiations have broken down, but mediation is required pretrial so let’s see if we can emulate the O’Hare settlement,” Sweetwater said, referring to the cease-fire reached with town resident Chris O’Hare in June.
    The documents Jonathan O’Boyle seeks include all documents “in the ‘6-foot pile’ that are referred to in the email of Dec. 8, 2014,” that Sufrin sent Sweetapple. The email was not part of the motion.
    Jeffrey Hochman, another outside attorney for Gulf Stream, reacted quickly, filing a motion objecting to the subpoena July 20.
    Meanwhile, Martin O’Boyle personally deposed former Vice Mayor Robert Ganger in connection with his slander complaint against Sweetapple and Mayor Scott Morgan. Ganger said he asked that the deposition be conducted in Gulf Stream so he would not have to travel to O’Boyle’s office in Deerfield Beach.
    “I went over to his house thinking I’d be out in 15 minutes,” Ganger said.
    Instead, the session lasted 1½ hours, with O’Boyle shooting questions rapid-fire, said Ganger, adding that he really knows nothing about the case.
    The burst of legal activity comes after O’Boyle urged town commissioners in April to settle all litigation. He took out a full-page ad in The Coastal Star in March saying the same thing.
    O’Boyle and Sufrin have tangled before. In 2008 and 2009 in Longport, N.J., where O’Boyle also has a home, he sued a former planning and zoning board member and two other residents.
    Sufrin, who represented all three defendants, suggested to Longport’s municipal attorney that they cooperate in the defense. Sufrin prepared a joint strategy memorandum and a collection of documents on CDs and sent them to the municipal attorney.
    O’Boyle filed a public records request; Sufrin argued that the documents were attorney work product and not subject to public records law.
    The New Jersey State Bar Association and the New Jersey Supreme Court agreed. “Here, the plaintiff-petitioner has requested access to items that, on their face and in the most obvious, explicit fashion, fit squarely within the applicable case law and court rules that bar release,” the bar association said.
    In Gulf Stream, O’Boyle and O’Hare filed more than 2,000 requests for public records and dozens of lawsuits starting in late 2013. The town said they filed wide-ranging requests in hopes that Gulf Stream could not respond in a timely way and thus generate litigation and demands for attorney’s fees

By Jane Smith
    
Hudson Holdings had its attorney write a warning letter to a state board, threatening to file an injunction unless it delayed the National Register review of the Old School Square Historic Arts District, said a principal of the Delray Beach developer.
    The Aug. 10 hearing will now be held Nov. 8, after the letter reached the Florida Historic Preservation Office in late July.
    “The application is flawed,” said Steven Michael, the Hudson Holdings principal. “It was not brought through the city process. … The property owners were not notified. … The City Commission did not sign off on it.”
    Michael is referring to the city’s rules for properties to be designated locally historic, said JoAnn Peart, president of the Delray Beach Preservation Trust. The nonprofit group sponsored the application of the Old School Square district.
    To be placed on the National Register of Historic Places, properties follow a different process. The nomination goes to the city’s Historic Preservation Board, then on to the state for recommendation to be placed on the National Register, Peart said. In 2014, she said, the trust used the same process to get the Marina Historic District on the National Register.
    Historic homes should not be moved and alleys cannot be abandoned in districts that want to be listed on the National Register, Peart said.
    The developer’s Midtown Delray Beach project sits in the southern half of the Old School Square district that is locally historic. The developers want to move some historic homes and demolish others to build the underground garage. Then the homes, on better foundations, would be moved a second time. They also want to use an abandoned alley to create a wide pedestrian plaza.
    “We are bringing back the homes to their original state,” Michael said. “The new buildings will be compatible.”
    The application writer, a historic planner for the city of Miami, and the preservation architect for Hudson Holdings sit on the five-member state review board. They cannot vote on the Old School Square district because they received a financial gain for their work.  
For more than a year, only four members attended the meetings. With two not being able to vote on the Old School Square application, it was not reviewed.

By Jane Smith
    
The beach promenade work is progressing, evidenced in the tricolor “waves” in the sidewalk on the southern half of the municipal beach.
    The street-side wave is tan concrete; the middle wave sports a chocolate brown color. The wave near the beach and under the shower fixtures has shells embedded in the tan concrete to prevent slipping.
    The contractor is about halfway finished with the $3.1 million promenade project in Delray Beach, aiming for a late summer opening.
    New smart parking meters are installed at the south end of the beach, from Casuarina Road north to Boston’s on the Beach. After a few weeks of free parking, beachgoers will have to pay the $1.50 hourly rate.
    The work zone has shifted north between the Marriott hotel to Thomas Street with underground piping for utility cables and backfilling for new showers and fountains in this area.
    The city added a third Downtown Trolley route for those choosing to park in the city garages.
    For questions about parking during the construction, call Jorge Alarcon at 243-7000, ext. 4112.

Benches, plaques won’t return
    In early July, the City Commission decided that the existing beach benches with their plaques would not return. They all have been removed and stored. The 68 owners will each be contacted and offered the return of the bench and its plaque in exchange for a free, inscribed brick near the flagpole at Atlantic Avenue. When possible, the benches may be used in other city parks.
    The old plaques have six or seven different designs and the new promenade has space for only 50 benches, said Jeff Suiter of consultant EDSA, which designed the project and is overseeing construction. The old plaques could be attached to the new benches for a few years, but they would leave a darkened patch when removed, Suiter told commissioners. How dark, he did not know.
    Interim City Manager Neal de Jesus pressed for a decision that evening.
    “We need to come up with a solution tonight. We are dealing with people on a daily basis,” he said. “We need to take emotions out of the decision while giving respect for those who have passed. We need to do what’s best for the city.”
    The vote was 3-2 with Vice Mayor Jim Chard and Commissioner Mitch Katz voting to keep the benches. Chard requested the vote. At a prior meeting, commissioners had reached a consensus that the plaques could be reused on the new benches, as suggested by Katz.
New trash containers, bike racks and benches will be installed the second week of August.
    “There is not a fair way to do this for the people who come next,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said. “The honorific way is to offer a free brick at the flagpole.”
    For questions about the benches and plaques, the city urges people to call Isaac Kovner at 243-7000, ext. 4119.

By Jane Smith
    
Without seeing a budget, city commissioners agreed to lower the property tax rate slightly for the financial year that begins Oct. 1 while still expecting to take in an estimated $4.6 million more in tax revenues.
    Delray Beach finance staff recommended in early July to drop the tax rate from the current $7.21 per $1,000 of property value to $7.09 per $1,000 of value, or 7.4 percent more than the rolled-back rate of $6.60 that would have generated the same amount of tax revenues as this year.  It would be the fifth consecutive year that Delray Beach has reduced its property tax rate.         “We have the $31 million bond from the penny sales tax proceeds and $37 million in reserves,” said Commissioner Shelly Petrolia. “We are in decent shape to give [something] back to the taxpayers.”
Most Delray Beach property owners won’t see a reduction in their property taxes because property values increased by an average of 9.5 percent, the county property appraiser determined. Homesteaded properties will see their property values increase by 2.1 percent.
    Mayor Cary Glickstein agreed that the city is financially healthy. He added that the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency will pay for all public projects in its district, which covers about 20 percent of the city. The agency receives a percentage of the city property tax dollars over a base rate set in 1995. Commissioner Mitch Katz and Vice Mayor Jim Chard said it was hard to cap the city’s property tax rate without knowing what the expenses would be.
    “We don’t need the whole book, just the basic department budgets,” Katz said.
    In the end, the four agreed to reduce the tax rate.
    Deputy Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson, who voted against the rate decrease, said the city had too many public works needs. She cited a recent water main break under the Intracoastal Waterway.
 “Costs for everything are rising,” said Neal de Jesus, interim city manager. “We will get there by doing absolutely what we have to do.”
 That focus will be on public safety, parks and recreation and public works projects.
    He proposes using the city’s reserves this budget year for one-time expenses, such as the estimated $1.2 million needed to replace the eight lifeguard stands and the estimated $810,000 needed for the new 100-foot Christmas tree.  
    The city’s proposed tax rate has two components. The operating tax rate is $6.86 per $1,000 value and the debt service rate is 23 cents per $1,000 value.  
    The tax rates had to be set by the end of July in order for the county property appraiser to mail notices in mid-August to every property owner. The notices cover assessed values and proposed tax rates. The rates can be lowered but not raised during the city’s budget hearings in September.

By Steve Plunkett

    The lawyer in the felony case against former Ocean Ridge Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella has rescheduled depositions of town officials and the police for late August.
Defense attorney Marc Shiner will depose arresting officers Nubia Plesnik and Richard Ermeri and since-retired Sgt. William Hallahan on Aug. 21, along with Police Chief Hal Hutchins, dispatcher Courtney Hammond, Lt. Richard Jones and Town Manager Jamie Titcomb.
    On Aug. 28 Shiner plans to depose current Vice Mayor James Bonfiglio, Mayor Geoff Pugh, Town Commissioner Steve Coz, former police Lt. Steven Wohlfiel and Kim Hutchins, the chief’s wife.
    Lucibella faces a felony charge of resisting arrest with violence; after reviewing the case the State Attorney’s Office added a felony charge of battery on a law enforcement officer. The battery charge covers Ermeri only; the resisting arrest with violence covers Ermeri “and/or N. Plesnik,” the charging document says.
Lucibella also is charged with misdemeanor use of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
    Plesnik, Ermeri and Hallahan went to Lucibella’s home Oct. 22 after neighbors reported hearing gunfire. They confiscated a .40-caliber handgun and found five spent shell casings on the backyard patio.
    Wohlfiel, their supervisor, was with Lucibella, and both men were “obviously intoxicated,” the police said. Officers later determined the confiscated handgun belonged to Wohlfiel.
    
Lucibella gets summons for officer’s civil lawsuit
Meanwhile, the man who delivered Lucibella’s copy of Officer Plesnik’s lawsuit claiming battery and negligence waited a month to notify the court that the summons had been served.
    In a document filed July 22, process server Christopher Marxen said he delivered the legal papers to Lucibella at his Beachway North home at 9:05 p.m. June 22.
Lucibella said he welcomed Marxen at his back gate.
“I bet you don’t often get someone who asks to be served,” Lucibella said.
In her lawsuit, Plesnik says Lucibella intentionally pushed and injured her, causing pain and disability, among other things.
    Her lawyer, Richard Slinkman, said Plesnik can perform the functions and duties of a police officer but continues to feel pain in her shoulder, even at work.
    West Palm Beach lawyer David Drahos is defending Lucibella in the civil lawsuit. Lucibella has a $10 million insurance policy against personal liability.
    Lucibella did not sound concerned about the legal action. “I find it rather comical — that’s my comment,” he said.
    During the arrest, Lucibella was pinned to his backyard patio pavers and suffered injuries to his face and ribs.  Shiner has said the officers overreacted.
    His trial, originally set for April, is now scheduled for October. Judge Charles Burton anticipates it will take four weeks.
    Lucibella resigned as vice mayor and town commissioner in December.

Town fights ex-lieutenant’s request for hearing
Ocean Ridge is fighting a request by Wohlfiel that a judge order the town manager to hold an evidentiary hearing before Wohlfiel can be fired.
    “Wohlfiel has failed to demonstrate that there was a ministerial duty to provide a quasi-judicial hearing before the town manager after receipt of a notice of termination letter,” attorney Lyman Reynolds said in a filing on behalf of Ocean Ridge in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
    Reynolds, who is paid by the town’s insurance company, said Wohlfiel’s request is improper because he was not “peremptorily” suspended.
    “As the memo from the chief to Wohlfiel states, he was ‘placed on administrative leave with pay until further notice.’ It was not a disciplinary action,” Reynolds argues.
    Chief Hutchins opened an internal investigation of Wohlfiel’s role in the incident the day after Lucibella’s arrest.
Titcomb fired Wohlfiel on Jan. 4 after receiving Hutchins’ recommendation. In the termination letter, Titcomb told Wohlfiel that Ocean Ridge police officers “need to exhibit conduct above reproach.”
“I don’t feel the standard we expect for our police officers has been met by you in this case,” Titcomb wrote.
    Wohlfiel’s attorney, Ralph King of the county’s Police Benevolent Association, asked the Town Commission to review the firing in February, then asked for a postponement.
    “Wohlfiel has not requested the appeal hearing before the Town Commission be rescheduled, which the town is ready and willing to do,” Reynolds said in the filing.

    Recent estimates suggest that as many as half of local arts journalism jobs in America have disappeared over the past decade. In South Florida I’d suggest that proportion is even higher.
    Yes, there are a few local bloggers who will tell you about the movies they liked (or hated), but how often do you find an informed blog discussion on a local art exhibit, dance performance or even a theater review? Not often, I’m afraid.
    I hadn’t thought much about this recently until the unexpected death of local arts writer Skip Sheffield. You may not recognize his name, but if you’ve read a theater, music or film review in a local publication these past 20 years, I suspect at least some of them were written by Skip.
    He believed so firmly in the importance of local arts criticism that he often worked for free — something I believe no publication should ask its contributors to do.
    Skip cared so much about South Florida that he did it anyway. He knew that information about the arts is important to the cultural vitality of an area. And Skip loved this area. He will be dearly missed. (See Thom Smith’s Around Town column, Page AT4.)
    In today’s media rush to count retweets and page views and Instagram followers, arts writers have been reduced to the status of promoters. There is no shortage of arts promotion in our area. The number of social media “arts influencers,” who usually work for tickets and access, has grown as the number of journalists has withered.
    There’s no fault in pushing the word about an exhibit, performance or show, but all of this social media rush and push creates a mind-spinning sense of everything, everywhere, all of the time. It takes arts journalism to help the reader understand the context of a work of art.
    This newspaper is proud to support art criticism with the insightful work of some of the area’s best arts writers. We do this under the editorial leadership of Greg Stepanich in The ArtsPaper; published online (www.pbartspaper.com) and in the pages of The Coastal Star each month.
    Without an informed guide to help understand what may have influenced an artist’s creation, or presentation, we miss a chance to discover new perspectives, sample new forms of expression and connect with creativity. We miss a chance to discuss these things with our friends after the show and roll them around in our brains as we take our morning walks or just sit and watch the ocean.
    We are better people for exploring art. Our cities and towns are more vital and vibrant — and economically resilient — when filled with art. And we need arts journalism to help us to better understand ourselves and our communities.
    The Coastal Star is a for-profit publication, so I am not asking for donations. But I am asking you to support the venues and art organizations that advertise in this newspaper, and to let the ones who don’t know how important art journalism is to you. Ask them to support our monthly arts section with their advertising dollars. It is critical to keeping local arts journalism alive.

— Mary Kate Leming, Editor

By Dan Moffett

    Two recent mediation sessions have done little to resolve lawsuits filed by developer William Swaim against the town of Ocean Ridge and Wellington Arms condominium owners.
    For the last three years, Swaim has been trying to persuade the town to grant him an easement behind Town Hall so he can develop property in the Ocean Ridge lagoon.
    Wellington Arms residents have vigorously fought the idea, asserting that the mangrove-rich lagoon is environmentally protected and should never be filled in for development.
    Attorneys for Swaim’s Waterfront ICW Properties have countered that the lagoon deserves no protection because it is not a natural body of water but rather a man-made ditch carved out decades ago to control mosquitoes.
    Representatives of the town and condominium association have participated in court-ordered mediation during the last two months.
    “It was an eight-hour grueling thing,” said Pat Ganley, a Wellington Arms representative of the June session. “We got nowhere with this. We were not successful.”
    Ganley said his group suffered a setback when the mediation judge issued a preliminary draft judgment that sided with Swaim and allowed that the Spanish Creek property was not state-owned sovereign submerged land but rather a result of human activity.
    “We lost and it’s devastating to the town,” Ganley told the Town Commission during its July 10 meeting. “We need you to help. So fight it.”
    Mayor Geoff Pugh, responding to residents’ calls for more proactive involvement from the commission, said town officials have been actively opposing Swaim behind the scenes and working with the town’s lawyers, but without public comment.
    “There are certain things you cannot say while there is an active case,” Pugh said, “otherwise it could completely [undermine] the whole Town Commission and then we’d be nowhere.”
    Town Attorney Brian Shutt said even if the court grants Swaim an easement, he will have many obstacles to clear before getting the permits necessary from state agencies, such as the South Florida Water Management District, to develop the property. Swaim has had no success getting permit approval so far.
    “The way I’m looking at it, we’re still quite a way from looking at anything actually occurring,” Shutt said.

Margaret Blume is donating almost $1 million for an interior renovation at the museum. Tim Stepien/ The Coastal Star

By Mary Thurwachter

    When it comes to backing projects, philanthropist Margaret Blume subscribes to marine conservationist Jacques Cousteau’s theory: “People protect what they love.”
    Like Cousteau, Blume loves the ocean and marine life. She spent $500,000 in 2015 to finance the Rapa Nui Reef, an underwater garden east of the Deerfield Beach pier.
    Another passion for Blume is education and reading. Her $2 million donation made it possible for the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County to move into a new 12,000-square-foot training and outreach center in Boynton Beach in 2013.
    Earlier this year, Blume was the major donor for the “Windows on the Floating World: Tropical Wetland Garden” at Mounts Botanical Garden in West Palm Beach. “Windows” showcases a series of see-through walkways and permanent and changing aquatic plant displays.
    Blume’s current project reflects her love of art and culture. She is donating almost $1 million for an interior renovation of the Cornell Art Museum at Old School Square. The remodeling will better showcase the innovative, contemporary art that defines exhibits and honors the historic character of the 1913 building.
    “I want to enhance the use of this historic schoolhouse for the display and enjoyment of art,” Blume said. “With the Cornell Museum, less is more. It’s a little gem that is perfect for a short, but lovely cultural experience in the heart of Delray Beach.”
    Blume learned of the need for a renovation through her neighbor, artist and friend Brenda Zappitell, who is on the board of directors for Old School Square. While she doesn’t consider herself an artist, Blume admits she “dabbles” in abstract painting and has taken classes with Zappitell.
    The renovation will modify front and rear entrances to create a more welcoming appearance and to allow more space for exhibit load-in and load-out; maximize exhibit space with movable walls to allow for more configurations within each gallery; upgrade gallery lighting; add sleek, new window coverings; and redesign the museum store with new cabinets and fixtures.
    At the Cornell Museum, which exhibits nationally and internationally recognized contemporary artists who create innovative and provocative works of art, Blume said she liked what she found, and not just the artwork.
    “There is a spirit here,” she said. “Everyone is excited and full of hopes and dreams. That makes all the difference. It’s edgy and new here at this lovely gateway to Delray.”
    When considering projects, Blume said, “I want something local I can watch. You need to be involved, not give money and walk away.”
    What’s in it for her?
    “It’s really fun for me,” she said. “How lucky I am to be like a fairy godmother and then to see the gift and how it helps people. This gift will benefit in a quieter way than some of my others.”
    Blume, 60, grew up in Los Angeles. She has a degree in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, and worked for a decade for her father, a real estate entrepreneur. She became a general contractor.
    Blume has lived in South Florida since 1991, when her husband’s job brought them here. “I came kicking and screaming,” she admits, but she has since fallen in love with the area and is especially taken with the clouds and the sky view. “The sky was never as crystal clear in California.”
Recently, Blume said she has become enchanted by moonrises, as well.
    She and her husband, Robert, a retired physician, live in Boynton Beach. They have two grown children and the family enjoys traveling, something Blume has done extensively, even as a child.
    “Every year as a family we would go to Europe and my sister and I would share a suitcase,” she said. “We would get a VW bug and drive all over. I felt like I was in a fairy tale with all the castles and museums.”
    Blume believes in living in the moment, and, despite all her philanthropic endeavors, she wants to be remembered by her children for having lived a full and happy life.
    “Remember me on a snowmobile in the Grand Tetons going thrillingly fast and being as happy as anyone,” she said.

    The Cornell Art Museum, 51 N Swinton Ave., Delray Beach, is closed until October for the renovation. The museum’s summer events continue and are relocated to the Crest Theatre galleries. Next up: Art Walks, from 6-9 p.m. on Aug. 4 and Sept. 1. Admission is free. Phone 243-7922 or visit www.OldSchoolSquare.org.

By Jane Smith
    
Without seeing a budget, city commissioners agreed to lower the property tax rate slightly for the financial year that begins Oct. 1 while still expecting to take in an estimated $4.6 million more in tax revenues.
    Delray Beach finance staff recommended in early July to drop the tax rate from the current $7.21 per $1,000 of property value to $7.09 per $1,000 of value, or 7.4 percent more than the rolled-back rate of $6.60 that would have generated the same amount of tax revenues as this year.  It would be the fifth consecutive year that Delray Beach has reduced its property tax rate.  “We have the $31 million bond from the penny sales tax proceeds and $37 million in reserves,” said Commissioner Shelly Petrolia. “We are in decent shape to give [something] back to the taxpayers.”
Most Delray Beach property owners won’t see a reduction in their property taxes because property values increased by an average of 9.5 percent, the county property appraiser determined. Homesteaded properties will see their property values increase by 2.1 percent.
    Mayor Cary Glickstein agreed that the city is financially healthy. He added that the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency will pay for all public projects in its district, which covers about 20 percent of the city. The agency receives a percentage of the city property tax dollars over a base rate set in 1995. Commissioner Mitch Katz and Vice Mayor Jim Chard said it was hard to cap the city’s property tax rate without knowing what the expenses would be.
    “We don’t need the whole book, just the basic department budgets,” Katz said.
    In the end, the four agreed to reduce the tax rate.
    Deputy Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson, who voted against the rate decrease, said the city had too many public works needs. She cited a recent water main break under the Intracoastal Waterway.
 “Costs for everything are rising,” said Neal de Jesus, interim city manager. “We will get there by doing absolutely what we have to do.”
 That focus will be on public safety, parks and recreation and public works projects.
    He proposes using the city’s reserves this budget year for one-time expenses, such as the estimated $1.2 million needed to replace the eight lifeguard stands and the estimated $810,000 needed for the new 100-foot Christmas tree.  
    The city’s proposed tax rate has two components. The operating tax rate is $6.86 per $1,000 value and the debt service rate is 23 cents per $1,000 value.  
    The tax rates had to be set by the end of July in order for the county property appraiser to mail notices in mid-August to every property owner. The notices cover assessed values and proposed tax rates. The rates can be lowered but not raised during the city’s budget hearings in September.

By Steve Plunkett
    
Buoyed by its recent settlement of all public records litigation by resident Chris O’Hare, the town plans to cut its legal budget for the coming fiscal year by 30 percent.
    Gulf Stream will set aside $400,000 for outside legal expenses, down from an expected $571,000, Town Manager Greg Dunham said.
    Cash reserves will top $2.6 million on Oct. 1, he said, continuing a recovery after the battle over public records requests drained the fund four years ago to $752,000. That led Dunham to recommend a property tax rate of $4.36 per $1,000, more than a penny under the rollback rate (the number that would generate the same revenue as in the current year). Town commissioners unanimously agreed. Dunham’s budget “looks reasoned and appropriate,” Mayor Scott Morgan said.
    A week later, commissioners awarded a $224,900 contract to build the 696-square-foot west addition to Town Hall. Republic Construction Corp. of Delray Beach submitted the winning bid and said the work would be finished in six months.
    Highlights of Dunham’s budget included $20,000 for a proposed second phase of a barrier island fire study, $235,000 for paving and striping roads, another $235,000 to upgrade storm drains and $211,000 for smart water meters.
    Town employees will receive 3 percent raises. Dunham also wants $30,000 for a long-range capital improvements plan.
    Commissioners will discuss the budget again Aug. 11.

This building would be constructed at the southwest corner of Atlantic and Swinton avenues

Historic homes would line Swinton.
Renderings/Randall Stofft Architects

Related stories: Builder seeks to block historic designation for district | Hudson Holdings Properties

Update: At the Aug. 2 city commission meeting, commissioners unanimously approved a 60-day postponement to review the developer's appeals of relocations and demolitions. In an Aug. 2 email, Bonnie Miskel, the land use attorney for Midtown, wrote that the developer wants to revise its site plan and take it through the city's approval process.

By Jane Smith

The developers of Midtown Delray Beach have a grand vision for their project.
“We want to provide a bridge from the Northwest and Southwest neighborhoods to those along East Atlantic Avenue,” said Steven Michael, a principal in the project’s developer, Hudson Holdings. “We want to re-energize the West Atlantic Avenue neighborhoods … bring the historic homes back to life.”
But a city board has denied the site plan that the project needs to go forward, and the project’s future is scheduled to be decided at the Aug. 15 City Commission meeting.
If approved, the 4.4-acre project would sit prominently at the southwest corner of Swinton and Atlantic avenues, putting it at the entrance of The Set, the new name for the Northwest and Southwest neighborhoods.          

When complete, Midtown would have 35,049 square feet of retail; 22,525 square feet of restaurants; 21,872 square feet of office space; 44 dwelling units; 50 condo units in five residential-type inns, and 109 hotel rooms in two buildings. Parking for most of the project, formerly called Swinton Commons, would be built in the first block of South Swinton Avenue underneath a group of historic homes that would be moved. Other garages would be built under a proposed  residential inn and a hotel across the street from each other at the corner of Southeast First Street and First Avenue.
The developers also hope to put in a wide pedestrian plaza in a nearby alley they’re asking the city to legally abandon.          

But Hudson Holdings might not be able to break ground this year, depending on the commission’s action.

Preservation Board backs part of plan
The city’s Historic Preservation Board reviewed the Midtown plans in late June because the project forms the southern part of the Old School Square Historic Arts District.
 The board denied three major portions of the plans, including the site plan.  
Its members approved moving three historic buildings and the demolition of six historic buildings. They also agreed to demolish two buildings on the south side of Atlantic Avenue, but denied a request to move five historic buildings, including The Rectory and the Cathcart House. Finally, they voted against demolishing two other historic buildings.
The developer’s attorney filed a last-minute appeal on July 12 in a letter that mentioned only a combined seven moves and demolitions. However, Michael said the letter addressed all of the denials, including the site plan, by its use of the phrase: “COA (certificate of appropriateness) denials.” He said he is proceeding as if the commission will review the entire project’s plans.
But Mayor Cary Glickstein said it’s not possible because the commission cannot review items not included in the appeal.
“The city attorney made clear the city’s position, which has not changed,” Glickstein wrote in an email. “The site plan denial was not timely appealed by the applicant; whether oversight or intentional, the site plan, as denied by Historic Preservation Board, cannot be considered by the City Commission.”  
In addition to the seven denials, the commission will review the approvals for the three relocations and the demolition of the six historic structures. The commission also will take up waivers needed for two residential inn-type buildings wider than 60 feet. According to city rules, buildings in historic districts are limited to 60 feet wide.
In addition, the commission will vote on the alley abandonment in the hotel block, even though the city has a policy against abandoning alleys.
During the Historic Preservation Board hearing on Midtown, board member Andrea Harden expressed concern the four-story commercial building at the corner of Atlantic and Swinton would overshadow The Rectory.  
“New construction should be compatible with existing structures,” she said.
She voted against most of the demolitions and relocations because the historic structures help to define the district.
To make it clear to residents and visitors that the historic district has been altered, the board members put an addendum on each of their approvals requiring: a historic marker or equivalent in the Old School Square Historic Arts District, dedicated space in the Cathcart House or The Rectory for exhibits, and sponsorship of a dedicated individual to give talks about the changes.
The only path forward, Glickstein said, “is to resubmit a site plan application with substantive and material changes to what [was] denied … or wait one year from the board denial date and resubmit the same or alternate plans.”

Midtown ensnared in sober home action
Last fall, Midtown became entangled with the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office’s Sober Homes Task Force.  
Two brothers, Bryan and Patrick Norquist, were arrested on patient-brokering charges. The arresting document listed two addresses inside the project: 20 S. Swinton Ave., the headquarters for Hudson Holdings, and 48 SE First Ave., former home of the Mariposa assisted living facility.
The city does not have a reasonable accommodation filed for either property or to anyone named Norquist, according to its planning director. Soon after the arrests, the Swinton Avenue sober home filed a change of address to Boynton Beach.
Michael said he knew about the sober home on Southeast First Avenue, but denied that any recovery operation was run out of the Hudson Holdings headquarters. He also said he’s losing rental income since the sober home on Southeast First Avenue was forced to close.  
Meanwhile, another of Michael’s projects is on the back burner. In May 2014, Hudson Holdings bought the historic Gulfstream Hotel in Lake Worth with real estate investor Carl DeSantis. The most recent activity happened this past spring, when Lake Worth’s Community Redevelopment Agency used grant money to demolish two aging structures on the site. The renovation approvals expire in April.
Michael said he is concentrating on Midtown Delray.  “It’s a legacy project for me,” he said. “I live in this town.”

 By Dan Moffett

    Recurring accounting problems in Ocean Ridge’s budgets have strained relations between Town Manager Jamie Titcomb and the Town Commission.
    So much so that the commission approved a proposal from Commissioner Steve Coz to change Titcomb’s annual contract to a month-to-month agreement when it comes up for renewal in October.
    “I’ve had various problems getting direction or getting results from Jamie,” Coz said. “I think he’s a true city manager. He’s incredibly process-oriented. But not results-oriented. We have a very tiny town here. And we need people who are much more results-oriented.”
    Vice Mayor James Bonfiglio has complained that Titcomb didn’t inform the commission for months after a computer software glitch damaged the town’s monthly financial statements. Bonfiglio said even after the glitch was disclosed, Titcomb wasn’t accountable and blamed staff for not catching the problem sooner.
    “It really wasn’t staff’s fault because the one that should be looking at this was ultimately the town manager,” Bonfiglio said.
    Mayor Geoff Pugh says the main reason the commission hired Titcomb in 2015 was that he professed extensive experience with financial records and could take over the work of Karen Hancsak, the former town clerk who retired after handling the town’s books for three decades.
    “I think Jamie is an excellent town manager but has a lack of experience in budgeting,” said Pugh, who complained that Titcomb’s budgets were “convoluted” and difficult to understand. “I don’t want to go through the budget process every time and ask, ‘What are you talking about?’ ”
    Overall, commissioners agreed with Pugh that Titcomb has done a commendable job — except for budgeting, the assignment they consider most important. They said the town wasn’t missing any money but was losing a lot of time trying to make sense of the manager’s numbers.
    Titcomb told commissioners he inherited an accounting system that was outdated and prone to error. He said he made improvements in procedures and upgraded software. Titcomb said turnover of critical personnel positions at Town Hall complicated his efforts to bring the administration up to speed.
    “I work every day to try to make Ocean Ridge the best little town it can be,” Titcomb said during the July 10 town meeting. “I have extensive experience in finance and budgeting. I’ve been doing this for over 40 years.”
    Pugh instructed Town Attorney Brian Shutt to negotiate a month-to-month agreement with Titcomb that will take effect when his current contract expires on Oct. 1. Commissioners said they want to get through this budget season, then reassess Titcomb’s performance.
    Titcomb said that if no agreement is reached by Sept. 30,  “I become a free agent again.”

    In other business, on a 3-1 vote with Gail Aaskov absent, commissioners gave tentative approval to keeping the tax rate at $5.35 per $1,000 of taxable value, roughly 5 percent above the rollback rate. They scheduled public budget hearings beginning at 6 p.m. on both Sept. 11 and Sept. 21.
    Commissioner Don MaGruder said he voted against the rate because he thought the town should have gone a bit higher with the preliminary maximum to allow itself some cushion to cover a growing list of possible expenditures.
    “I’m very much in favor of lowering the millage rate. However, the law is very clear that once the millage rate is set it cannot be increased, only lowered,” MaGruder said. “To my mind, lowering or keeping the millage rate the same (at $5.35) before a full town budget is developed and agreed upon makes no sense.”

By Steve Plunkett

    One of the Ocean Ridge police officers who charged then-Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella with resisting arrest with violence last October did not make the same charge stick in a second, unrelated case.
    The State Attorney’s Office decided July 17 not to press charges against a West Palm Beach man Police Officer Richard Ermeri encountered jogging south on A1A late May 20.
    Ermeri was investigating a 911 call from a woman who complained that a stranger was following her when he saw Christian Stewart, 40, just after 11 p.m. Stewart matched the woman’s description: a white man, dark shorts, beard, backpack.
    Ermeri rolled down the passenger window of his car, called out “and he ignored me,” Ermeri wrote in his arrest report. He activated his flashing lights and aimed his spotlight at Stewart, “to which he advised me to stop shining my light on him,” Ermeri wrote.
    Stewart continued to jog south on A1A and turned west on Ocean Avenue. Ermeri passed the man, stopped about 100 yards in front of him, got out of his car and ordered Stewart to stop. But Stewart kept jogging.
    So Ermeri grabbed him with both hands and ordered him to stop. Stewart “tried to pull away from me and when he was unable to, he began to become verbally and physically aggressive with me by yelling at me to let him go and by attempting to turn around and face me,” Ermeri reported.
Ermeri said Stewart began to lift his hands above his midsection, “a fighting stance,” and Ermeri “believed that he was going to strike me at any moment.”
    By then Sgt. Gary Roy had arrived.
    “I assisted Sgt. Roy with directing [Stewart] to the ground by stepping back with my right foot, shifting my weight to the right, and pulling down on his upper torso with both of my hands,” Ermeri wrote.
    Ermeri charged Stewart with resisting arrest with violence, a felony, and resisting arrest without violence, a misdemeanor.
    Roy’s report matched Ermeri’s. Stewart “became active aggressive when he took a fighting stance and used physical actions to attempt striking Officer Ermeri,” Roy wrote.
    But before connecting with Ermeri, Roy spoke with the woman who made the 911 call and was told the stranger was headed north, not south, on A1A. After the arrest, “It was determined that [Stewart] was not the individual that had been following” the woman, Roy reported.
Lucibella and Stewart are the only people Ermeri has charged with resisting arrest with violence, according to the clerk of the courts online docket.
    Stewart tried to get a public defender but was declared not indigent. Paul Walsh, a partner of Lucibella’s defense attorney, Marc Shiner, took on Stewart’s case. Walsh did not respond to a phone call or email seeking comment on the case.
    The State Attorney’s Office dropped the felony charge on June 8.
On July 17 Assistant State Attorney Daniel Taub said his office would not pursue the misdemeanor charge in exchange for Stewart’s paying the $50 cost of prosecution.

By Jane Smith

    Beleaguered by increasing overdoses in the city and receiving little help from state and federal agencies, Delray Beach leaders plan to sue big drug makers. They want to offset the financial drain on their public safety budget of responding to overdoses.
    In the first six months of 2017, drug overdoses rose 36.4 percent to 412 when compared with the first six months of 2016, according to the Delray Beach Police Department. Fatal overdoses were up by 27.6 percent to 37 in the same period, the data showed.
“Our city, indeed our state and country, struggle with an unprecedented crisis of people addicted to heroin and synthetic opioids,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said at the mid-July commission meeting. “No pathogen, virus, or war on this country’s soil has caused the death and destruction as the scourge of opioid addiction.”    
    Commissioners unanimously voted to work with the Boca Raton office of the Robbins Geller Rudman & Heller law firm. The agreement, which calls for no up-front tax dollars from Delray Beach and the law firm to share a portion of the proceeds if the city wins, was to be reviewed Aug. 2, a day after press time. The law firm’s proposed contingency agreement calls for a 23 percent share of the recovery, plus costs and expenses, for filing a lawsuit through a motion for summary judgment. Anything after that filing, the firm wants a 26.5 percent share.
    Robbins Geller will represent the city against leading drug makers, distributors and possibly insurance companies. Delray Beach may be the first city in Florida to take such action. Palm Beach County is considering whether to file such a lawsuit.
    At least four states and 12 cities have sued the pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors of narcotic pain relievers with claims similar to the tobacco litigation. Even Mike Moore, former Mississippi attorney general, has become involved in the opioid lawsuits, representing the state of Ohio.
    As Mississippi attorney general in 1994, Moore filed the first state lawsuit against tobacco companies, claiming they harmed the public health by misrepresenting the dangers of smoking. He spearheaded national efforts that led to a $240 billion settlement.
    Many public health officials think heroin users started when they were prescribed prescription pain relievers for injuries. When people become addicted to the prescription pain killers but can no longer get them legitimately, they often turn to street drugs such as heroin. The street drugs are often much cheaper.
    Pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma was said to have made billions of dollars in profits from selling OxyContin, “a highly addictive and dangerous painkiller originally designed only for end-stage cancer pain where addiction didn’t matter, but marketed as nonaddictive,” Glickstein said.
    In Florida, prescription pain killers in 2015 were written at the rate of 72 to 82 per 100 people, meaning that number of people were taking them at a given time, said Mark Dearman, a Boca Raton partner in the Robbins Geller law firm.
 Dearman touted the firm’s big wins: $17 billion against Volkswagen, a $7.2 billion settlement against Enron Corp. and a $1.57 billion settlement against HSBC, a banking and financial services company.
    Glickstein also railed against insurance companies for “paying billions in insurance claims” for counseling and urine tests “as if these were established medical procedures, which they are not, and which have, in fact, provided little in the way of sustained recovery for suffering addicts and desperate families.”
    Nearby Boynton Beach has seen a more shocking rise in the numbers of overdoses and fatalities. For the first six months of 2017, overdoses more than doubled to 331 from the same period the year before, according to the Boynton Beach Police Department. Fatalities increased about 2.5 times, with 32 deaths, the data showed.
    Mayor Steven Grant plans to talk to the city attorney so Boynton Beach doesn’t miss an opportunity to offset its costs of dealing with the opioid crisis.
    “I want to talk with the city attorney and my commission colleagues about whether it makes more sense to pursue a case on our own or go to an outside counsel on a contingency basis,” he said.
    The claims of negligence and deceptive marketing seem “like milquetoast when people are dying,” Delray Beach Vice Mayor Jim Chard said.
    Dearman said, “We don’t have the ability to go after them criminally; we have the ability to go after them civilly.”

By Mary Thurwachter

    The tide is turning in Lantana, where the tax rate has remained at $3.24 per $1,000 of taxable value for 10 years. At its July 10 meeting, the Town Council set the proposed rate for 2017-2018 at $3.50.
    The lone dissenter in a 4-1 vote to raise the rate was Mayor Dave Stewart, a staunch defender of keeping the rate flat.
    Stewart said Lantana would be the only one of 39 municipalities in Palm Beach County to raise its tax rate and he didn’t want to be any part of it. He said raising the rate wouldn’t bring in that much more money.
    But Vice Mayor Lynn Moorhouse, who consistently proposed raising taxes in the past, led the charge for the increase.
    “By leaving the tax rate flat we’re deteriorating,” Moorhouse said, adding that he agreed with Chamber of Commerce President Dave Arm, who said there was nothing wrong with raising the rate.
    “It’s time to consider raising revenues to meet the needs of the residents,” Arm said at the meeting. He said more police officers and code enforcement officers are needed.
    Ed Shropshire, the newest council member, said, “We need to get more support for our police and code enforcement because our town is looking terrible. I’ve been here since 1979 and it ain’t the seaside village it was.”
    Shropshire said he would prefer the tax rate be raised to $4 per $1,000 of taxable value but voted with others for the $3.50 rate. He said Lantana had the lowest tax rate in the county, but Stewart said that wasn’t true.
    Stewart said the town’s rate added to the fire-rescue rate brought the total to “between $6-$7, our effective rate.”
    Stewart said he would rather take money from reserves for necessary one-time purchases.
    Raising the rate to $3.50 is about a 15 percent increase over the rollback rate of $3.04, the mayor said.   
    Priorities for the money collected by the tax increase, council members agreed, are for code enforcement, enhancing employee salaries and additional police.
    Lantana will have public budget hearings at 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 11 and Sept. 25. The proposed rate cannot be raised from $3.50 but could be lowered.

Budget highlights
    Anticipated property tax revenues for 2018 are $2,941,319, up $187,834 from 2017’s $2,753,485.
    Property taxes are projected to account for 26.6 percent of the anticipated revenues in 2018 compared to 24.3 percent this year.
    Lantana received notification from the Palm Beach County property appraiser of a 7.4 percent increase in the value of taxable property within the town, from $889.9 million to $955.7 million. Based on new property values, each $1 in the tax rate generates revenues of approximately $904,924.
    Projected general fund revenues for Lantana also include $560,000 from the 1-cent sales tax increase (although that money can be used only for infrastructure such as roads, bridges and drainage, and amenities such as parks), $568,000 from grants, plus a $100,000 transfer from the town’s insurance fund.
    Workers compensation insurance and general liability, property and casualty insurance is expected to go up about 10 percent, and health insurance is anticipated to go up about 5 percent.
    One of the biggest expenditure increases will be from pension costs for police officers, which jumped about a half million dollars, from $489,398 to $904,992. The state will kick in $119,700 from insurance proceeds.
    The budget calls for 2.4 percent cost-of-living increases for employees, as well as merit increases up to 5 percent.
    Lantana would like to spend some money next year building a 6-foot wall to surround the town’s operation center, replace a police motorcycle, and add a police officer, dispatcher and part-time assistant at the library.

By Mary Thurwachter

    There’s a new restaurant on the horizon for Ocean Avenue. While all the details haven’t been revealed, Lantana Town Council members learned at their July 24 meeting that the eatery will fill the space previously occupied by Paesano Ristorante at 210 E. Ocean Ave.
    Because Paesano closed in 2016 and the property has been vacant for a year, the town zoning rules required a review and approval of a new special exception for the property to be used as a restaurant.
    That approval was granted after Morris Costigan, a Lantana resident and restaurant owner, made his pitch for leasing the property from its owner, the Small Corporation of Palm Beach.
    “I’ve been in the restaurant business for 24 years,” said Costigan, who with his wife, Rachel, owns O’Shea’s Irish Pub on Clematis Street in West Palm Beach. He said he stumbled upon the property on Super Bowl Sunday when he was looking for a bite to eat on Ocean Avenue.
    While he did not reveal the restaurant’s name, Costigan said it would be a European-American bistro, “not a bar, not beverage focused. Our price structure would be medium to low.”
    Chip Carlson, a representative of the Small Corporation, said the property, on the cottage/commercial stretch of Ocean Avenue, had housed restaurants since 1981 and has 43 parking spaces. Valet parking will be provided for the new restaurant.
    Carlson said he knew the area was plagued with parking problems, but added that “whether the restaurant was open or closed, you’re going to have congestion.”
    In other news, the town approved an increased assessment for solid waste and recyclables collection. For single-family homes, the increase will amount to 40 cents a month. The charge for condo units would go up 18 cents a month.

By Jane Smith

    Two large coastal cities in southern Palm Beach County passed group homes regulations in mid-July.
    The new rules, designed to rein in rogue operators of sober homes while preserving the single-family character of neighborhoods, cover all group homes for people with disabilities. A sober home provides housing for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics. When they live together and maintain a sober lifestyle, they are protected by federal anti-discrimination and fair housing laws.
    The new group home rules went into effect after the Delray Beach and Boynton Beach city commissions passed them unanimously on July 18.
    “We are following the federal regulations and need to maintain neutral standards,” said Mike Rumpf, Boynton Beach planning and zoning director. “The courts are sensitive to actions taken not based on facts but on community concerns.”
    As a result, Boynton Beach no longer has a distance requirement between new group homes. In June, Commissioner Joe Casello had asked for a greater distance than the 300 feet Rumpf had proposed.
    “There is no justification to enforce the distance between the homes,” said James Cherof, Boynton Beach city attorney.
    Delray Beach used a planning consultant from the Chicago area to help craft its group homes ordinance. With information supplied by city staff, Daniel Lauber said the city has at least 183 sober homes, far too many for a city of its size.
    Lauber, who also wrote the group homes ordinance for Prescott, Ariz., recommended a 660-foot radius between new group homes. That distance requirement is part of the new group homes ordinance in Delray Beach.
    In both cities, new group homes must be certified or licensed.
    In Delray Beach, existing group homes have until April 1 to become certified or licensed.
    Boynton Beach will require its existing group homes to become certified by Oct. 1, 2018.
    For sober homes, that means certification by the Florida Association of Recovery Residences, a regulatory body based in Boca Raton.
    The association’s president, John Lehman, spoke at the Boynton Beach City Commission meeting. Lehman said only 14 recovery residences were certified in Boynton Beach, but city officials estimate they have at least 50.
    “We have a grievance form on our website where you can report a problem with a FARR-certified home or one without certification,” Lehman said. The certification is required by the state for recovery residences that receive clients from state-licensed treatment centers.
    Neill Timmons, who runs two FARR-certified residences in Boynton Beach, said, “If the places are run well and staff supervises the clients, you should not have any problems.”
    Both cities also have parking requirements that mirror ones for single-family and multifamily neighborhoods.
    Boynton Beach recently upgraded its nuisance ordinance to include a 24/7 hotline for residents to call and complain about noise, parking problems, etc. City staff would investigate and, if warranted, the property owner would be contacted. The number is 732-8116.
    “If nothing is done, then it would go to the magistrate for review,” Boynton Beach Mayor Steven Grant said. “Measurables are calls to the non-emergency number.”
    Residents will play a significant role in telling the city what is happening in the neighborhoods, Cherof said.
    “It doesn’t happen overnight,” he said. “But over time, it should work.”