This legislative session demonstrated a political will to reform the Florida’s Public Records Act. However, that will was misguided in both SB 1220 and HB 1021.
    Those bills targeted the attorney’s fees provision of Chapter 119 and attempted to change that reward to successful litigants from mandatory to discretionary. The zeitgeist: Judges punish lawyers for not vetting clients. Since very few people will pay tens of thousands of dollars for an email, the lawyers will ultimately determine who will come across well in the histrionics of court.
    Here is the problem: What government is not going to label the requestor an abuser?     
    Any government lawyer worth their salt would label every requestor an abuser or risk malpractice. Since intentions are the only metric to distinguish abusers from non-abusers, the government will have subpoena power to discover your most intimate thoughts about public officials and government policies. The government will be allowed to subject you, your friends, family and coworkers to videotaped interrogations in search of anti-government sentiments. The government could read your emails, texts, and phone searching for evidence of frustration.
    The government will have the full power of the court to prove that you dislike the administration and are acting upon that dislike. Take a second to think about that; you sue the government for hiding information and the next thing you know you are being investigated for sedition: Orwellian.
    Thankfully, that situation fell through. 
    In that universe, attorneys would not be anti-abuser policemen. They would be cash-up-front. Even the most righteous-minded is not certain to have the mettle to see litigation through, ensuring the attorney’s payment. 
    Without enforcement, governments revert to their natural state of oligarchical secrecy.  There is, however, an answer to the public records question and it lies not in substance but procedure.
    First, the law must designate a responsible records custodian and mandate the government to clearly designate the identity of the custodian as well as the proper channels to make a request. Then, a request will only count if it is given to that designee, but requestors will not have to guess where to send requests or get the run-around. 
    Also, there should be a fixed time to respond to requests; that time can reasonably be enlarged by the custodian unilaterally, but only after attempts to work with the requestor on a mutual production date have failed.
    Custodians should also be asking for clarification and feedback in every correspondence and seeking clarification in writing. When both parties are on the same page, the system works and a culture of trust is promoted. In addition, “gotcha” litigation becomes impossible.
    But what about abuses in the number of requests? Be wary of the officials who seek to limit requests, they peddle snake oil.
    First, the government can charge; costs will become prohibitive.
    Second, a hard limit on requests is futile; friends and organizations can defeat any limitation. The only way to truly limit the number of requests is to build trust with citizens.
    Some ask for public records to keep them; most people ask because they are looking for answers to questions on which public officials have prevaricated. The more a government is perceived as dishonest or evasive, the more requests it generally receives. When dealing with citizens, it pays to answer questions today, not requests tomorrow. Although a government cannot limit requests by edict it may exercise control by engaging with civility and respect. 
    If Florida wants to sensibly address the public records question, the panacea lies not in substantive but procedural reforms and building trust. 

Jonathan O’Boyle,
Deerfield Beach

Jonathan O’Boyle, an attorney licensed in Florida and Pennsylvania, is the son of Gulf Stream resident Martin O’Boyle. During the last three years, the O’Boyles have filed dozens of lawsuits against the town over hundreds of public records.

    Two days after the Florida Legislature completed the 2016 session, a Sun Sentinel editorial headlined “Open government under attack,” indirectly referred to a failed bill that attempted to address abuse of the Public Records Act by a cottage industry of scam artists who have conspired to fleece Florida taxpayers of many millions of dollars.
    With some irony, the Florida Press Association had worked with bill sponsors to craft language to assure that only abusers of open government laws were targeted, and not the press or ordinary citizens. Perhaps someone missed the memo.
    The alleged public records “scheme” is virtually foolproof. It starts with the Sunshine Law that grants citizens and the press unfettered access to the inner workings of taxpayer-funded public agencies (municipalities, school boards, law enforcement, etc.) When requested records are not produced in a timely fashion, the requestor has a right to sue the agency. If the court finds that the request was actually denied, attorney fees must be awarded to the plaintiff.  
    Sounds reasonable. Except that hustlers have figured out how to game the system, either by overwhelming the agency with excessive requests, or by rigging the requests in a manner that makes it impossible to comply.
    Quick money is made by threatening or actually filing a lawsuit, then offering a settlement for a fraction of trial costs. The victim is in a lose/lose situation. Most settle, and the taxpayer foots the bill.
    The Florida League of Cities, representing all 410 state municipalities, got wind of the scam several years ago. In establishing  priorities for the 2016 legislative session, confronting abuse of the Public Records Act was the top choice of League policy makers. As a FLOC committee delegate from Gulf Stream, I was in the unenviable position of defining the problem that legislation needed to solve.
    Our tiny town endured 2,500 public records requests in 18 months, overwhelming a four-person administrative staff. Over 40 compliance lawsuits have been filed, some within hours of receipt of the request. Town annual legal costs escalated from $25,000 to $1 million. Almost 5,000 annual staff hours were spent processing records requests.
    Sadly, the Gulf Stream situation was neither unique nor more repulsive than the experience of similar agencies throughout the state. One mayor said, “We are facing an epidemic.”
    Rep. Greg Steube and Sen. Rene Garcia agreed to sponsor public records reform bills. It was a daunting task, involving: the mechanics of crafting bill language; assigning and coordinating six required committee reviews; educating and motivating 160 legislators; appearing at hearings and amending language as needed.
    League lobbyists coordinated the effort, and elected officials throughout the state personally testified in support of conscientious efforts to give courts discretion to withhold attorney fees from frivolous litigants.
    Florida Tax Watch, a respected watchdog whose research on government waste is based upon access to public records, filed a report asking Legislators to support sensible reform.
    The proposed bills passed all committee hearings almost unanimously. During testimony, the most ardent defenders of the Public Records Act acknowledged the damage caused by abusive practice, calling the perpetrators “cockroaches” and “gotcha guys.”
    The Florida Press Association and First Amendment Foundation worked with Garcia to amend bill language to not impose a chilling effect on legitimate exercise of open government rights.  
    Apparently, one influential  member of the House (who is a public records attorney), was not convinced. Rather than put SB 1220 to a vote on the House floor where it was certain to pass, the bill was buried.
    However, the genie is now out of the bottle. We’ll be back in 2017.

Robert W. Ganger
Vice Mayor, Gulf Stream

Robert W.  Ganger is a Florida  League of Cities committee delegate and a longtime Gulf Stream resident and commissioner.

By Jane Smith

    For nearly a year, city staffers have toiled to create a special-events policy for Delray Beach.
    Gathering staff from various departments was a bit like herding cats, Assistant City Manager Francine Ramaglia told city commissioners at their March workshop. But with the policy in place, each employee will know what is required, she said.
    For the first time, the city will have a special event application fee of $150 and require contracts that call for a deposit and cover the true cost of city staff and services and the impacts on city grounds and roads.
    The policy also would create a special events office in the Parks and Recreation Department to provide a one-stop shop for festival organizers. No new staff would be hired.
    Ramaglia said her goal is to return to the commission in early May with a policy that can be approved and implemented in time for festival organizers to use for next season’s events.
    The discussion took place just 10 days before the second annual Bacon & Bourbon Fest on Old School Square grounds. This year’s fest boasted four more bourbon bars, extended hours and even a pig race — all on the city’s historic grounds.
    “It doesn’t benefit the merchants,” said Vice Mayor Shelly Petrolia. “It’s held in a caged-off area. People come for the festival and then leave.”
    Some commissioners were exasperated about having yet another discussion on special events when the topic was brought up at two separate goal-setting sessions in the past year.
    City commissioners have identified “hometown events” worthy of closing Atlantic Avenue: the Veterans Day Parade in November; the Holiday Parade and First Night in December; St. Patrick’s Day Parade in March; Delray Affair, grandfathered in because it was started to honor the city’s former role as the Gladiolus Capital of the World, in April; and the Fourth of July events.
    The commissioners don’t want to see any other major events in those months. Major events are now defined as those lasting one day or more, costing more than $20,000 in city services, requiring a road closure, attracting more than 10,000 people and serving alcohol.
    In addition, commissioners no longer want to hold special events on Old School Square grounds. They want the Garlic Fest and other festivals moved to other areas that need promotion, such as Congress Avenue and West Atlantic.
    “It’s premature to talk about Congress Avenue,” said Nancy Stewart-Franczak, whose Festival Management firm organizes the Garlic Fest, Bacon & Bourbon Fest and the Wine & Seafood Fest. She also sits on the special events task force.
    Without a new property identified, her firm is trying to lessen the impact of its events by offering parking and security solutions.
    Since June, Ramaglia and her two co-captains, Parks and Recreation Director Suzanne Davis and Economic Development Director Joan Goodrich, worked with staffers from seven other departments on the special events task force. The group also included event organizers such as the Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Development Authority and the Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative.
    They did try to get members from the community, but they stopped coming after a few meetings, Ramaglia said.
    Mayor Cary Glickstein said he appreciates the group’s focus on public safety and the full-cost recovery of the special events, but more work needs to be done to cull the number of large events. He wants to see “collective pain” on the part of organizers.
    He likened the objections to special events to the scale of complaints he receives about sober homes. “People want smaller events they can relate to,” he said.
    The Delray Beach Wine & Seafood Fest, held last November on A1A along the city’s beach, was “just another honky-tonk kind of event,” he said. Next time, the fest will be held on Old School Square grounds, Ramaglia said, much to the chagrin of Petrolia and Glickstein.
    Savor the Avenue, which closed four blocks of Atlantic Avenue on a Monday night in March, was deemed suitable. The event features Delray Beach restaurants.
    The Delray Affair will have 100 fewer booths this April because it will no longer set up on Old School Square grounds.
    The mayor talked about walking the event last year along Atlantic Avenue from Andrews Avenue west to Swinton Avenue, and seeing only one person he knew. “And I’ve been here for 30-plus years,” he said.

    Compared to the previous financial year, the city is seeing a reduction of two festivals from 67 to 65 during the season and a reduction of nine from 14 to five events in the summer months.
    Ramaglia said the full effect would not be seen until the fall when next financial year starts.
    “Special events have been a mainstay for so many years; we need everyone’s input,” she said. “We want to be careful in making a change that we do not pop the balloon that helped Delray grow.”

    Delray Beach voters overwhelmingly approved changing the city charter to give the City Commission authority to appoint an internal auditor. The vote was 9,318 to 3,144.
    The vote on a second referendum question, on allowing the City Commission to change its civil service code by local ordinance instead of by holding a referendum and submitting a local bill to the Florida Legislature, received a closer approval, at 6,402 to 5,569.
— Jane Smith

By Dan Moffett

    A positive report from Commissioner Clark Appleby has given the Manalapan Town Commission reason to take the next steps in exploring a water utility deal with Boynton Beach.
    Appleby, a financial adviser by trade, studied the potential impact of selling the town’s system and found that most of Manalapan’s customers would see their water bills decrease if the deal with Boynton goes through.
    “About 85 percent or more of the users would be saving money,” he told the commission during its March 22 meeting.
    Appleby said Manalapan cannot match those lower rates  if it keeps its water system because the town does not have a large enough customer base. He said the plant currently is running at only 49 percent capacity and there isn’t enough volume with 880 customers to drive down cost.
    Boynton Beach has more than 100,000 customers — size enough to keep rates low.
    Making matters worse, before much longer the town will have to replace its aging infrastructure of pipes, an overhaul that will cost about $5 million.
    “That’s a huge hurdle for us,” Appleby said. “I don’t think this town wants to take on $5 million in debt.”
    Appleby recommended continuing talks for a deal with Boynton Beach. The commission unanimously agreed.
    Commissioners also agreed that, after hearing former Ocean Ridge Mayor Ken Kaleel urge them to get a more comprehensive study from an outside source, an additional analysis would be a good idea.
    “This is a huge, huge decision — it could be the biggest decision that you’ll make,” said Kaleel, a lawyer with clients in Manalapan. “Maybe this is good for the short term. But is it good for the long term?”
    Kaleel told the commission that Ocean Ridge made sure to maintain control of its pipes and delivery system when contracting with Boynton Beach for water. He said that keeping ownership of the infrastructure would give Manalapan more latitude to handle regional water shortages in years ahead.
    “We have a static customer base, and we’re faced with a fairly significant capital expenditure,” said Mayor David Cheifetz, who argued that the town should continue talking to Boynton while getting a consultant lined up for an independent review of the plan’s long-term impact.
    Commissioners said they would consider holding a public workshop once the review is done to get input from residents.
    In other business,Vice Mayor Peter Isaac said the Audubon Causeway bridge project still has a chance “to be substantially complete” before August.
    Isaac said he expects the south side of the bridge to be finished during the first two weeks of May, which will allow the removal of weight restrictions on traffic. Workers then will have 11 weeks to complete the north side.
    “There’s still a shot at the end of July” target date, he said.

Correction

      An April story about the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency’s goal-setting session gave the wrong attribution about the reasons behind a proposed tax rate reduction. The CRA executive director told his board members that the city wants the CRA to cover an additional $2 million in projects and services so that the city could reduce its overall property tax rate. 

By Jane Smith

    The city of Delray Beach is working with its Community Redevelopment Agency to make sure the agency’s spending aligns with city goals.
    An example of that new relationship was seen March 10 when the Delray Beach city manager and his two assistants attended the CRA goal-setting workshop for the first time.
    The city has dropped its efforts to reduce the size of the CRA or the amount of property tax money the agency receives. The city is concerned that reducing its share would lead to the county asking for a similar reduction, said Don Cooper, city manager. “I’ll take every dime,” he said.
    Instead, the city wants the CRA to cover an additional $2 million in projects and services so that the city could reduce its property tax rate by 3.42 percent, according to the city’s chief financial officer.
    The Delray Beach property tax rate is slightly more than double the rate paid by Boca Raton property owners, but it’s about 12 percent lower than the tax rate in Boynton Beach.
    The proposed reduction would result in the owner of a Delray Beach home, valued at $200,000 for tax purposes and with a $50,000 homestead exemption, to save about $38 a year on property taxes, CFO Jack Warner calculated.
    The extra items include two more police officers for the CRA’s Clean & Safe program in the downtown area, an additional code enforcement officer for the northwest and southwest neighborhoods, increased contribution to the tennis center tournaments and covering the cost of a tennis stadium study.
    CRA Chairman Reggie Cox asked his executive director to give the board options about what to pay for so that the agency sticks to its mission of curing blight.
    “The tennis center dollars could be used elsewhere,” Cox said.
    The City Commission and CRA board have a joint workshop planned for April 12.   
    “It’s not gloom and doom,” Cooper said. “It’s just a difficult time.”
    For Delray Beach, most of the property value increase happens in the CRA area, which covers 20 percent of the city.
    CRA board member Paul Zacks said, “I look forward to the workshop if it’s cooperative, but cooperation does not mean capitulation. I am for working with the city to work out solutions.”
    The subject of the downtown trolley also was discussed. Cox and board member Bill Branning were concerned about the CRA’s return on investment for the $400,000 annual operating cost. Both said ridership was too low to justify the amount.
    Board members asked whether the CRA can expand its office because it now has more staff and interns and an increased workload.
    Cooper suggested that they try asking the city library about its unused upstairs space since the children’s area moved.
    “It’s a balancing act with limited resources,” he said. “No one ever comes to me and asks for less.”
    The CRA received good news March 15 when the City Commission approved waivers and the site plan for the proposed iPic theater complex on CRA-owned land. The theater company needed those approvals to purchase the 1.59-acre site for $3.6 million. The sale will not close until October, which means the CRA will have to wait until the start of its next budget year to be paid.
    “We should be excited about where we are,” said resident Chuck Ridley, also vice chairman of the West Atlantic Redevelopment Coalition.
    For the past year, the CRA board members grew concerned that the agency’s area might be reduced or the amount of property tax money it receives would be cut. The money talk came up at nearly every CRA meeting since last April, when a joint workshop was held with the City Commission.
    “We should not be at this time in our evolution worried about reducing millage and whether we should have a CRA … If I would close my eyes, it reminded me of the Republican (presidential) debates,” Ridley said.

Jim Donley keeps a map of the world at his Delray Beach home decorated with photos

from his adventures as a Cabinet aide and economic development adviser.

Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Donley goes climbing in the Balkans in 1989.

He taped an anniversary clipping of John F. Kennedy’s motorcade through Dallas

to a photo of himself conferring with then-Treasury Secretary John Connally

aboard Air Force Two over India in 1972.

Photos provided

By Mary Thurwachter

    Jim Donley’s six decades of travel to 100 countries could be fodder for a movie. He circled the globe as spokesman for Treasury Secretary John Connally, worked in the Caribbean for Time magazine, founded an international communications company, climbed the Alps, rode camels in Mongolia and helped poor countries grow their economies — and their vegetables.
    But Hollywood hasn’t come knocking on the Delray Beach man’s door just yet, so a PowerPoint presentation highlighting his illustrious life suffices for now.
    On April 17, the Palm Beach Chapter of the Circumnavigators, an exclusive club that provides travelers who have circled the world with a forum for intellectual exchange, will converge at the St. Andrew’s Club. Donley, 81, will be the star.
    The talk is not open to the public, but the charming globe trotter has given us a peek at his presentation and his storied life.
    He has had no interest in being a tourist, he insists. His story explores why he has traveled to so many countries and what he was doing in some of them.
    “Note that you will see no museums, castles or cathedrals,” he explains. “I am self-indulgent and, like Forrest Gump, my face keeps popping up in the photos of unlikely places.”
    Born in Ohio, Donley was a football and track star at Western Reserve Academy. He joined the Army when he was 19.
    “I went to military police school and was assigned to a psychological warfare unit,” he says. As he sailed out of New York Harbor, he saw the Queen Mary cruise in.
    “We were sent to Germany to keep an eye on Hungary, but I had my eye on plusher duty,” he says. “I talked my way into a desk job as editor of the 7th Army Sentinel Daily newspaper covering all of Europe. I used that position to come up with ideas for me to travel and cover events such as Grace Kelly’s wedding and the Winter Olympics in Cortina d’ Ampezzo, Italy (in 1956).”
    His years in the Army took him to 14 countries in Europe, including some in which he competed on the Army’s track team as a half-miler and javelin thrower in hopes of making it to the summer Olympics.
    From the Army, he returned to college, earning a bachelor of arts in development economics from Denison University and a master’s in international business from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
    After graduate school, he spent eight years as the managing director of the Caribbean for Time magazine. That episode of his life took him to 15 more countries.
    The next chapter took him to Washington, D.C., and around the world aboard Air Force Two as press secretary for Connally. (The former Texas governor had ridden in the limo with John F. Kennedy in 1963 when he was assassinated. Connally also was shot.)
    In 1972, President Richard Nixon made his breakthrough trip to China that would lead to a balance of power shift against the Soviet Union. “It represented the U.S. making common cause with China,” Donley says. “Nixon had briefed the superpowers (England, France, Japan, etc.) on the agreements he had made and used Connally, who had political power, to brief the next layer of countries. We also had bilateral trade and economic issues to negotiate.”
    Donley traveled with Connally everywhere he went  — adding 18 more countries to his list in the process.
    Donley’s job was scheduling, protocol, media relations and Treasury Department issues. He brushed shoulders with presidents, shahs, kings and ambassadors.
    While Donley visited Kabul, Afghanistan, there was a fellow he hadn’t heard of who pressed for a meeting with Connally. His name was Red Duke, and Donley thought he sounded like some redneck who couldn’t be important enough to warrant a meeting with his boss. But he mentioned the request to Connally anyway.
    “Jesus, Jim, are you dumb?” Donley remembers Connally saying at the time. “He saved my life.”
    Red Duke was the trauma surgeon who operated on Connally in Dallas the day of the Kennedy assassination.
    Dr. James H. Duke was teaching surgery in Afghanistan when Donley met him. As it turned out, Connally and Red Duke spent many hours together in Afghanistan.
    Donley left the Treasury in 1974 (he had also served as press secretary to George Shultz) to start Donley Communications in New York City. His clients were international investment banks, accounting firms and law firms.
    “I began representing offshore financial centers such as Gibraltar and Mauritius,” he says. “I also followed up on my longtime interest in Eastern Europe and formed a relationship with an Austrian firm, which led me to clients in the U.S.S.R. and satellite countries before the Berlin Wall came down.”
    Through relationships he made while working for the Treasury Department, he did work in South Africa. He visited another 14 countries during that time.
    In 1990, Donley left his company behind to do nonprofit work in economic development of poor countries.
    “My principal early involvement was an organization called Technoserve, which was first a client, then I became an employee, went on the board for 20 years and am now senior adviser.”

   "In 1993, I did a different kind of aid work, bringing relief supplies to refugees in Somalia and Ethiopia," he says. "I flew to Mogadishu in an Air Force C5A and then made hops on smaller cargo planes. A week after I left, retreating to Mombasa,  Black Hawk went down in Mogadishu."
    By 1995, Donley started working with developing mostly rural, poor countries.
    “My special interest was agriculture and the development of sub-sustenance farmers into profitable businesses,” he says. In Poland, he worked on quality control with garlic farmers, and in Kenya, with cabbage farmers.
    “In Poland, we helped develop the first tubular potatoes to fill the market needs of McDonald’s and Burger King that were expanding their french fry line into Eastern Europe,” he says.
    Donley’s longest sustained effort was in Bulgaria, where he lived for two years working for USAID as country director for the International Executive Service Corps.
    “Frankly, it was a grim life and hard work with over 100 Bulgarian clients that we advised on adapting from a well-embedded communist economist theory to a market economy. But I loved the country and its people and maintain many of those relationships today.”
    He added 22 countries to his tally during his economic development period.
    The final episode of his travel life, he says, was for adventure and curiosity, taking him to at least another 15 countries.
    He reached the summits of Mount Kilimanjaro and Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps. He went on a safari in Africa, sailed from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland and Labrador and skied all over Europe.
    He and his wife, Toddy, rode horses and camels across the Gobi Desert.
    But some of his favorite adventure travel excursions were long walks in England, Scotland and Wales.
    “All the walks are hilly and take some physical endurance and you carry everything you need on your back,” Donley says.
    Today, with all the miles he has logged, Donley has no interest in more travel. He enjoys spending time and talking sports with his grandchildren.
    Donley hopes and believes he will leave the world a little better than he found it. He feels lucky to have lived the life he has lived.
After talking about his life, Donley likes to share these fitting lines from The Road Not Taken poem by Robert Frost:
    “I shall be telling this with a sigh.
    “Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
    “I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

By Jane Smith

    The iPic theater complex will go forward in the heart of Delray Beach by the slimmest of approval ratings.
    On March 15, the City Commission signed off on three waivers and a site plan by a 3-2 vote. The project will occupy 1.59 acres just south of Atlantic Avenue between Southeast Fourth and Fifth avenues.
    Vice Mayor Shelly Petrolia and Commissioner Mitch Katz voted no. Katz didn’t think iPic did enough to reduce its size, as directed. The 94,912-square-foot iPic complex will be a mixed-use development of eight movie theaters with 497 seats taking up 44,979 square feet, 42,446 square feet of offices and 7,487 square feet of retail. Petrolia suggested they cut a movie theater to make the project a better fit.
    “We need eight movie theaters to be economically viable,” said Bonnie Miskel, iPic’s attorney. By cutting 32 seats, iPic is losing $1.5 million annually, she said. “We are widening that alley by 8 feet and making the upper deck a public area.”
    The March commission meeting began with drama.
    Miskel, seeing that iPic CEO Hamid Hashemi and Commissioner Al Jacquet were not there, requested a delay to the next month’s meeting.
    Jacquet opened a campaign account in January for his expected run for Florida House District 88. Two Hashemi-linked companies and iPic each donated $1,000 to Jacquet’s House campaign.
    The postponement motion failed with Katz and Petrolia voting no, even after the city attorney explained the liability of due process.
    “They pulled this agenda switching on other boards,” Katz said, and pushed other projects back. If iPic wants to postpone, he wanted to see the project go to the back of the approval-process line and wait six months.
    Jacquet said he was late because he was heavily involved in Super Tuesday. Hashemi said he was stuck in traffic in Miami. They both showed by the time the City Commission discussed iPic around 7:45 p.m.
    The project received the go-ahead with conditions. Mayor Cary Glickstein asked for a separate developer’s agreement from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, which owns the former library and chamber of commerce site.
    “The poor work product created a lot of problems here before us,” Glickstein said.
    He is concerned about traffic on Federal Highway from vehicles dropping off passengers going to the movies. The theater has a pedestrian entrance on Federal Highway.
    “I want to see uniformed officers on Federal Highway and if [iPic] gets complacent,” Glickstein said, “I want the city to position its officers at their expense.”
    In addition, he wants a guarantee from iPic that it would move its corporate headquarters to Delray Beach for five years.
    Before the vote, he also criticized iPic’s attorney for making “amateur moves,” such as the mystery of the corporate office and the one at the start of the meeting where Miskel asked for a delay because two people weren’t there.
    The actions, he said, “made our jobs more difficult when we are trying to support what we think is a good project.”
    The complex relies on its valet system to work. Glickstein wants that language strengthened so that the city decides whether it is operating well and not iPic.
    Commissioner Katz wanted to make sure residents understood why he would not support the waivers. He likened iPic to Delray Place, home to a Trader Joe’s grocery store.
    “Two years later residents near Delray Place are upset about the waivers granted to get that Trader Joe’s,” he said. “Rolling out the red carpet does not mean we make exception to our rules just to have a movie theater or a Trader Joe’s.”
    In other action, commissioners:
    • Denied single-level parking lifts for Swinton Commons.
    • Adopted the pet sales ban that allows sales of rescue cats and dogs only in an attempt to cut off the supply from puppy mills. Waggs to Riches is the only store that sells dogs in the city. The store has six months to comply. The store’s owner could not be reached for comment.

    • Approved spending $11,929 for design and permitting services with Wantman Group Inc. for a wheelchair-accessible walkway to the Atlantic Avenue Beach Pavilion.
    • Awarded a reclaimed water system contract for $2.7 million to Mancon Inc. It was the lowest bidder and will build the system in a .7-mile stretch of the barrier island between Causarina and Poinsettia roads. Work will begin this month.
    • Authorized the city manager to monitor vacancies at the city marina and determine whether lower rates are needed. The city recently increased its rental rates by nearly 56 percent to $28 a square foot for those living aboard their boats. The city raised the rates partially to cover the marina costs, including new docks and repairing or replacing the seawall.

By Mary Hladky

    Facing an epidemic of drug overdose deaths, Florida lawmakers passed a number of bills in the recently completed legislative session that take steps to rein in the problem.
    “I think the Legislature has really developed an understanding of the impact of substance abuse disorders and mental health … and an understanding of the epidemic we are facing with heroin and opioids,” said Mark Fontaine, executive director of the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association. “These bills together show a deliberate effort by the Legislature to start addressing how we can be more effective to deliver care, respond to the opioid/heroin epidemic and coordinate services.”
    The legislative action comes as drug overdose deaths have surged in Palm Beach County, the state and the nation.
    The number of deaths jumped to 368 in the county last year, a 62.8 percent increase since 2013, according to data released by the Palm Beach County Medical Examiner’s Office in late February.
    Palm Beach County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Bell has said he thinks the mixing of heroin with fentanyl is causing the increase in drug overdose deaths.
    Nationally, drug overdose deaths have increased 137 percent since 2000, claiming nearly 500,000 lives, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in January. The biggest driver is the increased use of heroin and opioid pain relievers.

Drugs outlawed by category
    One of the most significant new laws in Florida is the Designer Drugs Enforcement Act, proposed by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
    The law bans categories of drugs, such as those related to synthetic marijuana, rather than individual chemical compounds. It is aimed at solving the perpetual problem of illicit drug makers tweaking the composition of a drug so that it is not on the list of illegal substances.
    “It advances the ability to classify dangerous substances as being illegal even before they appear,” said James Hall, a Nova Southeastern University epidemiologist who studies substance abuse and drug outbreaks.
    In the past, it could take years to recognize the threat of a new compound and await legislative action to outlaw it.
    “We have had over 300 new drugs appearing in the illicit market in the last 10 years,” Hall said.

Delivery of services reformed
    Lawmakers also approved wide-ranging reforms in a single bill aimed at improving the delivery of mental health and substance abuse treatment services.
    One key provision is a “no wrong door” policy so people who need treatment can get it regardless of whether they have committed a crime or have a personal crisis. It creates central receiving facilities intended to channel people to emergency care and intervention services.
    It also “aligns” the legal processes for assessment, evaluation and receipt of services under the Baker Act and the Marchman Act. The Baker act allows for involuntary examination or commitment of those with mental illnesses who may be a threat to themselves or others. The Marchman Act allows for involuntary commitment of those undergoing a substance abuse crisis.

Some other new laws
    • A pilot program for Miami-Dade County that will allow drug addicts to exchange their dirty needles for free, clean ones. The aim is to reduce new HIV and hepatitis C infections caused by sharing needles and to give drug users information about treatment programs and other resources.
    Hall said the hope is to expand the program statewide. “That has been identified as a critical need with the rise in opioid deaths across the state,” he said.
    The bill was stalled for three years in the legislature because some say it would encourage drug use, although studies have shown that is not the case, he said.
    • A requirement that pharmacies sell lock boxes for prescription drugs to prevent drugs from getting into the wrong hands and to display signs saying the boxes are available for purchase.
    • A tool to combat prescription opioid abuse by making it easier for physicians to prescribe abuse-deterrent prescription opioids. These pills are more difficult to crush by addicts who want to smoke, snort or inject the drugs. Crushing drugs bypasses time-release properties, making overdose more likely.
    While Hall and Fontaine are glad to see the new legislation, they said much work remains to be done.
    “Florida has not kept up with the demand for treatment,” Hall said. “Until we address addiction through treatment and prevention programs and intervention and counseling, the cycle will continue.”
    Fontaine agrees.
    “We remain behind the rest of the country in funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment in proportion to the population,” he said. “Some of the other states have taken a more aggressive approach to the heroin epidemic.”
    Substance abuse, especially the rising use of heroin, has become an urgent topic at the national level and addressed by both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.
    In March, the U.S. Senate passed a broad drug treatment and prevention bill 94-1. The measure authorizes money for treatment programs for addicts, including those in jail. It also strengthens prescription drug monitoring programs and expands the availability of the drug naloxone, which helps reverse overdoses.
    But a fight continues over extra funding for the programs, and the fate of the legislation in the U.S. House is uncertain.
    Also in March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines for prescription painkillers, recommending that doctors try pain relievers such as ibuprofen before prescribing highly addictive pills.
    The guidelines are intended to change the practices of doctors dating back 20 years when they began prescribing opioids for routine pain. Since then, opioid painkillers such as OxyContin, Percocet and Vicodin have become the most widely prescribed drugs in the country.

By Jane Smith

    Another ray of hope for South County coastal cities overwhelmed with sober home complaints comes via U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel’s office.
    She is holding a roundtable discussion May 2 on sober homes. Her office has invited mayors, city managers and city attorneys to the Delray Beach discussion, which will take place in private.  An assistant secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department, Gustavo Velasquez, also will attend.
    Frankel’s district spans the coastal areas of northern Broward County and southern Palm Beach County up to Riviera Beach. Her office could not say how many cities would be represented at the May 2 roundtable. Delray Beach and Boca Raton officials intend to be there.
    The roundtable was originally set for March 11, but it was canceled when a HUD official became sick and was unable to make the trip.
    Cities, including Boca Raton and Delray Beach, lost court cases when sober homes and their clients sued under federal disability and fair housing laws. Sometimes the judges awarded multimillion-dollar damages to the sober home operators and their clients. Addicts in recovery are seen as a family unit that is protected under federal laws.
    Prior to the afternoon discussion, Delray Beach officials will take Frankel and Velasquez on a tour of sober homes in their city. Mayor Cary Glickstein estimates that the city has hundreds of single-family and multifamily sober homes, most of which are not certified.
    Later in the day, they will hold a news conference on the sober home issue.

By Rich Pollack

    Drug users who overdose and are rescued with the use of the medication naloxone may soon be getting long-term recovery help from an unexpected source — the Delray Beach Police Department.
    Police Chief Jeff Goldman, working in conjunction with the Delray Beach Drug Task Force, hopes to begin a pilot program this month in which the department connects overdose survivors with trained social-service advocates who can help get those who are willing back into recovery.
    “This is a recovery community but we don’t want it to be a relapse community,” Goldman said. “Our goal is to get these people help.”
    Initially, the pilot program will use social workers and addiction professionals provided on a volunteer basis by members of the drug task force, which includes several recovery-related professional and nonprofit organizations.
    Goldman hopes to eventually create a full-time paid special population advocate position within the department, with a scope that would include working on reducing relapses among drug users hospitalized as a result of overdoses.
    “My goal is to hire someone to work for the Police Department,” he said, adding that the individual would also be available to assist other groups, including the homeless and those suffering from mental illness.
    To help cover the costs, the Police Department is teaming up with the drug task force in search of available grants that could be used to defray some expenses.
    “Our job is to ensure public safety,” Goldman said. “It goes beyond putting bad people in jail. If we’re able to get these people into recovery and reduce the number of relapses, then we’re assuring a better quality of life for all in our community.”
    Goldman said his department is using a three-pronged approach locally to address the national heroin epidemic, which he says is responsible for about 30 overdoses a month in Delray Beach. That approach includes education, enforcement and lifesaving techniques, such as the use of naloxone.
    Law enforcement tools, including arrests of chronic offenders, will be used in cases where individuals don’t seek help getting into recovery, the chief said.
    “The No. 1 reason we’re doing this is because it’s a concern to our community,” he said.
    While details of the process are still being worked out, Goldman says the volunteers and eventually the advocate would probably be introduced to individuals recovering from an overdose by an officer or investigator gathering follow-up information.  Currently, the department contacts those treated with naloxone by either police or paramedics to gather information that can be used in a criminal investigation.
    Last month, the Delray Beach Police Department became only the second law enforcement agency in the state to train officers on how to use naloxone to revive those overdosing on heroin or other opioids.
    Officers administered naloxone seven times in the first 15 days of March, while paramedics administered the drug 44 times through March 24.
    Suzanne Spencer, executive director of the Delray Beach Drug Task Force, sees the pilot program as an important next step in helping those who are revived after an overdose.
    “We have a responsibility to look beyond just handling a crisis,” she said. “You have to look deeper into where the problems are coming from. This is a longer term intervention that can help to break the cycle of addiction.”

Consultants suggest redoing a building with restrooms and offices,

reconfiguring the docks and refurbishing the area.

Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

The dock at Ocean Inlet Park, almost 30 years old, has rotting wood fenders and other failings.

Plans call for a two-story structure with a residence for the dockmaster on the second floor,

expanded parking and a new dock (in red). The county parks director

says, 'There’s no doubt that funding will be available at some point.’

Rendering provided

By Rich Pollack

    Plans for improvements to Palm Beach County’s aging Ocean Inlet Park at the Boynton Inlet are in the works, but the timeline for when drawings will be converted into actual work is still up in the air.   
    A consulting firm has drawn up preliminary conceptual plans for the nearly 30-year-old park, which would include replacing a building that houses offices and bathrooms, reconfiguring docks and generally sprucing up the popular recreational area.
    The problem is that there is no money available for the project, which has an estimated $5 million price tag.
    Still, county officials are optimistic that the money will be freed up eventually, and they want to be ready when that happens.
    “There’s no doubt that funding will be available at some point,” said Eric Call, Palm Beach County’s director of parks and recreation.
    Call said wear and tear on facilities have taken their toll and improvements would not only enhance the park’s appearance but also address potential safety issues.
    “Over the past decade, there has been significant settling of the seawall and patio area, deterioration of the docks and piers, and significant wear and tear on a 28-year-old building that is no longer serving the needs of the department,” he said.
    Call said that the picnic area at the southern end of the park as well as the beachfront area adjacent to docks on the park’s Intracoastal Waterway side are popular, especially on weekends and holidays.
    “We want to improve all support facilities necessary to meet the recreational needs of our residents,” he said.
    Conceptual plans for the park’s renovations, drawn up by the consulting firm of Alan Gerwig & Associates of Wellington, call for the demolition of a two-story building that includes bathrooms and offices used by the county’s ocean rescue team and by Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office personnel.     
    It would be replaced by a more functional two-story building that would include bathrooms and offices that would serve as headquarters for the Palm Beach County Ocean Rescue’s south district and perhaps other marine enforcement-related organizations.
    The big change would be on the second floor, which Call says would be used as a residence for a dockmaster.
    Seawalls damaged over time would be strengthened and there would be some improvements to the playground area, Call said.
Plans also call for improved landscaping on the south end of the park and widening of a footpath. Also being considered is the addition of about 35 parking spaces and the reconfiguration of the docks that would include one space designated for a water taxi.
    At this point, Call said, there are no plans to make improvements to the north end of the park, adjacent to the inlet, but improvements could be made in later phases of the project.  
    As plans evolve, Call is seeking feedback from neighboring Ocean Ridge officials. He has already run conceptual drawings by Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins for input regarding public safety issues.
    Eventually, plans for the park will be brought before the Town Commission for approval.

Shade sails such as this one at Oceanfront Park would be used to collect rain for irrigation

under a plan to make the park more environmentally friendly.

Willie Howard/The Coastal Star

A site plan shows the new wastewater treatment plant (bottom left) expected to be completed

by the end of this year. Some rooftop solar panels (blue) and rain-collecting shade canopies (yellow)

will be included in this year’s work.

Rendering provided

By Willie Howard

    A new wastewater treatment plant and other environmentally friendly upgrades are planned for Boynton Beach Oceanfront Park.
    Scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, the wastewater plant will replace a 32-year-old plant that treats effluent from the park’s bathrooms and kitchen.
    The new plant will treat the sewage to a higher advanced standard, meaning the treated water can be used for landscape irrigation at the park, located on North Ocean Boulevard just east of Ocean Ridge Town Hall.
    Rooftop solar panels — and possibly small wind turbines — for power generation and a water-collection system that uses shade canopies to capture rain and funnel it into a cistern are part of the conceptual plan for the park’s green makeover.
    Rainwater will be mixed with treated water from the wastewater plant to irrigate the park’s lawn and plants, Boynton Beach Utilities Director Colin Groff said.
    Power generated by the solar panels will be used to satisfy part of the power demands of the new wastewater treatment plant, Groff said.
    Only part of the power-generation and rain-gathering systems will be installed at the park this year because of budget constraints.
    The city received a $300,000 state grant and will contribute $150,000 in city funds to replace the wastewater treatment plant and begin other improvements at the park. The city could receive more grant money next year to complete the upgrades.
    The combination of treated water from the wastewater plant and captured rainwater should allow the city to minimize the use of potable water for landscape irrigation in the park.
    “This is a city park,” Groff said. “We want to make sure our impact is as little as possible.”
    The new treatment plant was needed because the old one is outdated and too large for the amount of wastewater it treats. The park’s restrooms and snack kitchen generate about 1,500 gallons of effluent daily.
    The new plant will treat the wastewater to an advanced standard — a higher level of treatment than the secondary treatment achieved by the existing plant, which discharges treated water into a drain field at the park.
    Florida’s advanced wastewater treatment standard requires that most of the nitrogen and phosphorus be removed. Advanced treatment also kills most bacteria and pathogens, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
    By comparison, secondary treatment removes solids and organic waste but does not include requirements for removing nitrogen, phosphorus and pathogens.
    Groff said the decision to replace the wastewater treatment plant at Oceanfront Park was not related to the tougher bacteria standards for beach water that took effect Jan. 1.
    But he said the new plant is less likely to fail and cause water quality problems on the beach than the existing plant, installed in 1984.

By Dan Moffett

    It could take at least another month before six barrier island communities learn the results of a feasibility study on a plan to create a special fire district.
    Robert Finn, a consultant with Matrix Consulting Group, told members of the towns’ exploratory group in March that he was still gathering information. After Matrix collects the data it needs, Finn says, he can go forward with an analysis and then make recommendations.
    “It could take another month or two” to get the completed report, said Manalapan Town Manager Linda Stumpf.
    Along with Manalapan, Gulf Stream, Briny Breezes, Ocean Ridge, South Palm Beach and Highland Beach are trying to determine whether it makes sense to create their own tax district to provide fire-rescue services for themselves, rather than relying on mainland providers — Delray Beach, Boynton Beach and Palm Beach County.
    The Group of Six had hoped to have the findings by now, but town schedules and problems getting data from the county have delayed progress.
    Finn sent the group a preliminary draft that reflects how the towns currently obtain services for their residents and what the costs are.
    “This serves as our factual understanding and assumptions as we move forward with developing the alternatives for providing fire/EMS services on the barrier island,” Finn said. “There are no findings or recommendations at this point in the process, just facts as we understand them.”
    Among the many things the group hopes to learn from the study are what it would cost to start the proposed district, how much it would cost to run it and what the impact might be on response times.
    William Thrasher, the Gulf Stream town manager who organized the group, says the study results will go to the towns’ commissions and councils to determine whether the plan moves forward.

Under the proposal, seven concrete groins will run perpendicular to the shor

stretching up to 75 feet out into the ocean. This conceptual drawing shows the groins uncovered,

but they will be buried under 7 feet of sand. The sand will gradually wash away and the beach will need

renourishment every two or three years.

Conceptual drawing provided by Palm Beach County

By Dan Moffett

    Mayor Bonnie Fischer and Town Manager Bob Vitas are going door-to-door along the South Palm Beach oceanfront, selling the town’s beach restoration plan to residents.
    Much of their campaign is spent debunking rumors and distortions. But their main focus is getting 16 easements from the 16 property owners on the 5/8-mile coastline.
    “If one says no, then we don’t have a project,” Vitas said.
    The easements will allow engineers and surveyors to begin setting the stage for the installation of seven groins that officials hope will restore the town’s shrinking beaches and slow erosion for maybe — just maybe — the next 50 years.
    The $5 million restoration plan for South Palm Beach is nearly 10 years in the making and is built on a partnership between governments that have committed to split the bill: The federal government will pay 50 percent of the project, the county will pay 30 percent from its tourism bed tax coffers, and the town will have to cover the remaining 20 percent.
    South Palm Beach has been putting money away for years, even during the Great Recession, and has $1.5 million in reserves earmarked for restoration.
    But nothing happens unless Fischer and Vitas sell the 16 property owners — mostly condominium association boards — on allowing the easements.
    “Things have been going well so far,” Fischer said. “But there are so many rumors and so much false information out there.”
    Much of the confusion stems from a poor understanding of groins. What are they and how will they work?
    Groins are concrete panels that are mounted on concrete support piles. Think of them as similar in structure to the concrete sound walls that are erected along Interstate 95 to shield neighborhoods from noise.
    The seven groins will run perpendicular to the shoreline, some of them stretching as far as 75 feet into the ocean.  Once the groins are installed, you won’t know they’re there, engineers promise, because they will be buried under 7 feet of sand and planted deep into the ocean’s hard bottom. The groins will not be attached to the condo seawalls.
    Over time, the ocean will take its toll, gradually carrying the sand away from the groins. Engineers expect that every two or three years more sand will have to be brought in to keep the groins covered. The cost of this replenishment is expected to average about $200,000 a year and is the town’s responsibility to pay.
    The goal of the project is to stabilize the town’s shoreline and maintain about 75 feet of beach from one end of South Palm Beach to the other.
    Fischer and Vitas say they hope to have the 16 property owners committed to allowing the easements by the end of April. The county then could sign off in June on beginning the survey work.
    But the heavy construction is still many months away. The target date for beginning installation of the groins is somewhere between the fall of 2017 and the spring of 2018, Fischer said.

By Dan Moffett

    By comfortable margins, South Palm Beach voters rejected a call for change from political newcomer Robert Gargano on March 15 and returned incumbents Robert Gottlieb and Stella Gaddy Jordan to the Town Council.
    Gottlieb received 337 votes, roughly 43 percent of those cast, Jordan followed with 285 (37 percent) and Gargano got 156 (20 percent). The top two finishers were elected to two-year terms.
    Gottlieb, 75, first joined the Town Council in 2005 and has served five terms, in part or in full, since. While all council members have cited beach restoration as their No. 1 priority, Gottlieb also has said that the town has to improve its long-range planning, upgrade its technology and lower the tax rate now that property values have risen.
    “At some point, we have to give some relief back to our residents, our taxpayers,” he said.
    Jordan, 75, is beginning her fourth term since first winning election to the council in 2010. She told voters the council has to focus on setting a five-year plan for the town’s recently hired administrative team.
    “We have a new town manager and a new town clerk,” Jordan said. “Now the council has to give them our priorities so they can work together and know what’s expected of them. Until now, we haven’t done as much planning as we should have.”
    Gargano, 68, a semi-retired chemical engineer and technology consultant, characterized council members as “nice people” who were unqualified to lead the town, especially in financial matters. During a town meeting late last year, Gargano told the council it was making a mistake in approving a 10-year contract with Waste Management.

By Dan Moffett

    Briny Breezes Town Council members have put the brakes on passing an ordinance to restrict truck traffic after hearing concerns about safety from their police chief.
    Hal Hutchins, Ocean Ridge police chief and the town marshal, told the council that too many restricted streets can have the unintended consequence of forcing trucks into risky situations.
    “I am concerned with the enforceability of this ordinance,” Hutchins said, telling council members that the final draft of the proposed law went further than the proposals discussed by the town’s Planning and Zoning Board.
    “I think we have to be reasonable in where we place restrictions on roadways and not dead-end people and cause them to have to violate an ordinance in order to try and get out of the area,” Hutchins told the council during its March 24 meeting.
    The chief said if the town forces large trucks off too many streets, then drivers might have no choice but to back up or make dangerous turns trying to get through Briny Breezes. That’s not what the town wants, Hutchins said, and he told the council that proposed restrictions to Briny Breezes Boulevard could be particularly problematic.
    Council members originally focused on restricting truck traffic on Old Ocean Boulevard because the town was receiving legal transfer of the road from the state Department of Transportation. But the scope of proposed restrictions broadened as residents called for more limits on heavy trucks.
    “One of the things I learned a long time ago is that we don’t dead-end people and then expect them to figure a way to get out,” Hutchins said.
    Town Attorney John Skrandel, who is drafting the ordinance, said he would do more research on enforcement issues and bring a revised version of the law for a first reading at the council’s April 28 meeting.
    Three provisions that appear likely to remain in the ordinance are descriptions of the trucks that would be restricted: those with three or more axles, including trailers; those that weigh more than 8,000 pounds; and those with a load capacity greater than 1 ton. Violators would be subject to fines under the town’s municipal code.
    Skrandel said that trucks making deliveries to Briny Breezes — vehicles that have the town as their destination — would not be restricted. Utility trucks, such and those used by Florida Power & Light, and emergency vehicles also would be exempted.
    The town has received the deed transfer paperwork for Old Ocean Boulevard from state officials, Skrandel said, and also a letter from Palm Beach County saying it wants no ownership of the road. So, Old Ocean now is officially Briny Breezes’.
    In other business, Council President Sue Thaler said Alderman Ira Friedman has resigned his seat in order to return to the Planning and Zoning board, where he served many years.
    Thaler said Karen Wiggins, a former alderman whom Friedman replaced in 2015, has volunteered to return to the council. Wiggins is expected to be sworn in at the town’s April meeting.

By Jane Smith

    The city recently agreed to pay more than $221,000 for work done to clean and sanitize two fire stations, including one that serves Ocean Ridge and Briny Breezes.
    At station No. 1, which serves the coastal communities, the mold-removal work cost Boynton Beach $69,673. The station, on Boynton Beach Boulevard near City Hall, closed in early December after mold was found. It reopened Jan. 18. Crews worked out of station No. 4 on South Federal Highway.
    “I hope we don’t have to go down this road again,” said Commissioner Mack McCray at the March 16 meeting. “That was $221,569 that I wished we could have saved.”
    An additional $20,575 was paid to send 46 employees who claimed they suffered from air quality problems in station Nos. 1 and 3 for chest X-rays and for 28 of them to see a pulmonologist.
    Only five are still in the process of being verified, Tim McPherson, risk management director, told the City Commission. Employees floated between station Nos. 1 and 3, making it impossible to identify at which station they contracted the problem, he said.
    Parts of a sleep apnea machine used by an employee also became contaminated, not the entire machine, McPherson told commissioners.
    Interim Fire Chief Greg Hoggatt explained what his staff is doing to stop the air-quality problems:
    • Conducting annual inspections of the stations by senior staff,
    • Reminding captains at the stations that they are responsible for cleanliness at the stations and that housekeeping needs to be improved,
    • Reporting any leaks that need to be fixed,
    • Reviewing standard operating guidelines on cleanliness and determining whether they are the most efficient ways to do them, and
    • Reminding firefighters to consider the stations as their homes and to treat them as such.
    Semi-annual deep cleanings are once again done by an outside firm. When budget cuts were made citywide in 2008, the cleanings were done in-house, Hoggatt said.
    At fire station No. 1, the flaps didn’t seal properly, allowing engine exhaust and other airborne particles to enter the bunk rooms where firefighters sleep, risk management workers found.
    HVAC rooms at both stations were found to be dirty and littered with garbage. The units need to be cleaned at least monthly, according to the risk management report.
    The City Commission approved the expenditure unanimously by a 4-0 vote. Commissioner David Merker was absent.
    Commissioner McCray asked, “Who dropped the ball?”
    “The team dropped the ball,” Hoggatt said. “No one place was the weak link.”

The eight-story Ocean One proposal might be joined later by a hotel and a larger, 15-story condo to the south.

Rendering courtesy of Cohen, Freedman, Encinosa & Associates

By Jane Smith

    In a surprise move for area waterfront residents, the Boynton Beach Community Redevelopment Agency and investor Davis Camalier are working to make an eight-story apartment complex planned for the southeast corner of Federal Highway and Boynton Beach Boulevard a reality.
    The day before the agency’s March meeting, its attorney gave the go-ahead to add the Ocean One project and adjacent CRA-owned land to the agenda. Camalier’s team wants the CRA land, a .47-acre parcel recently appraised at $460,000, for $10. The board accepted his letter of intent by a 4-1 vote.
    Then-Commissioner Mike Fitzpatrick objected.
    “I am not in favor of doing such a deal early on; [if so], the weaker the city’s bargaining position will be,” he said. “We should not be flying off and giving something away without understanding the whole project.”
    Fitzpatrick was defeated in the March 15 municipal election.
    CRA Executive Director Vivian Brooks said the agency bought the parcel as part of a land deal in 2002 for $900,000. “We lost a lot of it to the improvements” of Boynton Beach Boulevard, she said. She recommends transferring the CRA property at the time Ocean One gets its construction loan. Including the CRA’s land, the the project is 1.98 acres.
    Brooks told the CRA board that the Ocean One development team did not ask for other incentives. Brooks also said the developer agreement would be ready to review at the May 10 meeting.
    Mayor Jerry Taylor, who also sits as the CRA chairman, revealed he had met with Camalier and his partner, Bill Morris, to discuss Ocean One. Morris also is involved in Hudson Holding’s project, Swinton Commons, in Delray Beach. Plans there call for demolishing eight houses and buildings and moving eight historic houses.
    Camalier teamed with Morris, a real estate developer who built the Worthing Place apartments in Delray Beach. They have been friends for 10 years, Morris said. He described Camalier as more of a real estate investor who needed help with the development side. No other investors are involved, he said.
    “The piece of [CRA] property is critical to our moving forward,” Morris said.
    “Camalier bought at the height of the market that was followed by a steep market correction,” Brooks said. Values still have not returned, his attorney, Bonnie Miskel, wrote in a March 8 letter explaining why her client wants the land for nearly nothing.
    Ocean One plans, submitted a few days before the CRA meeting, call for 237 apartments, varying in size from a 560-square-foot studio to a 1,600-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bath apartment.
    A six-story garage would sit behind the horseshoe-shaped complex. The garage’s first floor would have 36 spaces for visitors and guests. The remaining floors are for apartment residents and would have a security gate that can be accessed by a key fob, Morris said.
    “We want to do as high-quality, upscale project as we can afford,” Morris said. Doing so would require incentives from the CRA to help offset the lower apartment rental rates in Boynton Beach, similar to what the nearby 500 Ocean apartment complex received.
    The Boynton Beach submarket, east of Interstate 95, commands rental rates that are 50 cents to 70 cents a square foot lower than in Delray Beach, Morris said. As an example, he said, Worthing Place gets $2.60 a square foot, while starting rental rates at Ocean One would be $1.90 a square foot.
    “It may increase, but that’s where we are starting out,” Morris said. “Without incentives, we could not finance the project and get it going.”
    Camalier still owns the southern part of the former Bank of America parcel. The second phase calls for a hotel in the southwest corner of the parcel, Morris said. The CRA told him to talk with Guy Harvey Resorts as a possible hotelier when they are ready to tackle that phase.
    The third phase would be a 15-story condo on the southeast, according to Morris. “It’s not as important for the hotel guests to have waterfront views as it is for the condo owners,” he said.
    The new coalition of Intracoastal residents will monitor the project, said Kristine de Haseth, executive director of the Florida Coalition for Preservation, which created the Boynton Coalition for Responsible Development. The height, density, traffic and parking will be scrutinized.
    Both groups promote responsible development.
    “We want to see the whole picture of that site, that’s how they would get everyone to buy into it,” de Haseth said.
    If the developers seek incentives in addition to the CRA’s half-acre, she said, “Citizens will want to know: What is the give-back to the city? What are we getting?”

Members of the New Hampshire Police Association pipe and drum corps provided some of the entertainment.

Britt Usher of Boca Raton was decked out in her finest green.

Delray Beach celebrated its annual  St. Patrick’s Day Parade along Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach on March 12.

This year, parade organizers created a partnership with Honor Flight, and more than 60 WWII veterans led the parade.

Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star