By Steve Plunkett

Highland Beach town commissioners on Aug. 2 postponed discussing whether to have their staff review and approve building permits for Gulf Stream projects after Delray Beach pulled out of a similar arrangement in May.
Because Mayor Doug Hillman was absent, Vice Mayor Natasha Moore moved the agenda item to an Aug. 4 special meeting.
“He wanted to be part of that discussion,” Moore said.
But resident Jack Halpern said it was “highly disappointing” to him as he read the meeting agenda beforehand to see the proposal up for consideration with little to no discussion in previous meetings.
“I absolutely cannot understand why we are offering services of Highland Beach to support Gulf Stream,” he said. “There is no benefit, no added benefit to the residents of Highland Beach.”
According to the proposed agreement: “Fees charged to Gulf Stream properties shall be the same as those charged to Highland Beach properties, and all permits shall be processed on a first-come, first-serve basis, with permits from neither municipality receiving priority over the other.”
Gulf Stream town commissioners were expected to OK the agreement at their Aug. 12 meeting.
Because of Delray Beach’s long processing times, Gulf Stream officials had been advising residents to hold off on applying for building permits until Highland Beach could take over. Highland Beach has said most permits could be approved in 10 days.
Highland Beach Building Official Jeff Remas has said Gulf Stream generates 800 to 900 permit applications a year. He said Highland Beach is processing 2,000 to 2,100 permits a year, so adding Gulf Stream work would be a 40% increase by his calculations.
Delray Beach stopped performing engineering, floodplain and landscaping review for Gulf Stream plans last spring after it discovered its building department was doing them without needed City Commission approval.
Gulf Stream temporarily enlisted its consulting engineering firm Baxter & Woodman for the engineering and floodplain portions of the permits, and landscape architect Dave Bodker of Delray for the landscape review.
Delray Beach officials had told Gulf Stream the city would have to charge extra for those reviews — which Delray residents receive as part of the normal permit process — even though Gulf Stream residents paid the same fees as their Delray Beach counterparts.
City officials also had warned that Delray Beach politics might thwart extending an agreement with Gulf Stream.
“It seems the constituents are very upset with the amount of time it is taking to process their permits,” so they ask “why are they also processing Gulf Stream’s permits,” Gulf Stream Assistant Town Attorney Trey Nazzaro had said.
The agreement between Highland Beach and Gulf Stream would be of a “continuing nature,” with either side able to terminate it by giving no less than 90 days’ written notice.

By Steve Plunkett

A whopping $4.4 million increase in the estimate to fix roads and drainage in the town’s Core district led Gulf Stream commissioners in July to propose raising property taxes for the first time in seven years.
The new price for the Core part of the capital improvement plan is $11.1 million, up from $6.7 million a year ago and equal to the originally envisioned cost of the entire 10-year CIP.
“We certainly hope to fine-tune that and have the cost come down when we get into the finer points of the design,” Rebecca Travis of Baxter & Woodman consulting engineers said. Travis presented her firm’s preliminary design of the project on July 8 and said it was on schedule to start construction next July.
But commissioners that day also had to set a proposed property tax rate for the budget year that starts Oct. 1. They settled on keeping the rate the same as this year’s $3.67 per $1,000 of taxable value. That will bring in an additional $551,000 in revenue, an 11.8% tax increase.
The rollback tax rate, which would have generated the same revenue as the previous year, was $3.28 per $1,000. Gulf Stream had adopted the rollback rate or gone below it every year since September 2016.
“As long as the residents, you know, are getting what they want — and the scope of the project, the CIP, the paving and drainage is something everyone’s been after us about — we keep it the same,” Vice Mayor Tom Stanley said of the tax rate.
Mayor Scott Morgan also argued against using the rollback rate.
“We don’t want to be shocking the residents next year or two years from now with a much larger tax increase should that become necessary,” he said.
Public hearings on Gulf Stream’s fiscal 2023 budget and property tax rate are scheduled for 5:01 p.m. on Sept. 9 and Sept. 21 at Town Hall.
The proposed operating budget is $9.3 million, up 8.1% from $8.6 million in the current fiscal year.
Town Manager Greg Dunham said his budget includes a 5% cost-of-living pay raise for employees. The consumer price index for South Florida in April was up 9.6%, he said.
Morgan shot down an idea to also give town workers an “inflation correction” to their pay. Instead, he asked Dunham and Rebecca Tew, the town’s chief financial officer, to compute giving employees a sum to offset the higher gas prices they pay to commute to Gulf Stream.
“I guarantee that the employees will appreciate anything that can help pay for the gas and the food bills,” Dunham said.
He and Tew will come back to the commissioners in August with figures on the fuel offset. Dunham, Town Clerk Rita Taylor, Police Chief Edward Allen and Police Capt. John Haseley, who already receive car allowances, would not get the offsets.
Travis said fears of persistent inflation and shortages of road building and drainage materials forced the engineers to use a 30% contingency for the cost estimate instead of the typical 20%, adding $855,723 to the bottom line.
“The materials availability has really become a problem recently,” she said.
Engineers plan to use “valley gutters” on both sides of the roads in the Core to channel stormwater to outflow pipes. The gutters, which the company recently used in Jupiter Inlet Colony, are concrete, 2 feet wide and slightly V-shaped. They are considered drivable space in the roadway.
Travis’ colleague Jeff Hiscock said he is working with The Little Club to expand one of its lakes to filter more stormwater before it reaches the Intracoastal Waterway. The South Florida Water Management District has indicated it will approve the Baxter & Woodman drainage plan if a lake is enlarged by a quarter-acre.
But the club, Hiscock said, wants to see if the district will OK expanding multiple lakes by smaller amounts equivalent to a quarter-acre instead of adding all the new water surface to just one lake.

A Border Patrol agent watches as residents check out a boat that came ashore about 3 a.m. July 7 and carried eight migrants from the Dominican Republic. Six of those aboard were located. ‘The other two — they know that one of them got into a cab and left,’ Gulf Stream Police Chief Edward Allen said. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

If it looks like something is missing in this picture looking north along the 4000 block of North Ocean Boulevard, it is. Gulf Stream’s undergrounding project got rid of power lines and poles. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

Burial of utility lines took decade, blew budget, but original backer voices no regret

By Steve Plunkett

It’s almost over!
Gulf Stream’s signature municipal project — to bury its electric, telephone and cable TV lines underground and remove the unsightly poles and overhead wires — neared an end on Aug. 2, with only two poles still standing, all but closing a tangled chapter of the town’s history that traces its roots to a hurricane in 2005 and endured cost overruns, a federal lawsuit and lots of time.
Town Manager Greg Dunham, who asked visitors to Town Hall if they saw anything different after Sea Road in front of the building was de-poled, was surprised at their reactions.
“A lot of people don’t even notice that the poles are gone,” he said.
Outside auditor Ron Bennett noted a happy coincidence as he delivered the latest town audit on July 8.

A crew from Blackwood Solutions loaded up dozens of utility poles that had been temporarily stored behind Town Hall.

“The undergrounding loan—it was actually paid off on April 1 I believe, the last payment, so as of now the town has no debt. You’re debt-free,” Bennett said.
Gulf Stream borrowed $2.43 million in 2012 to jump-start the project while it collected property owners’ assessments for the work. Owners of single-family homes paid $11,907 on average, while condo owners paid $7,057 on average, either upfront or in annual installments.
The genesis for the ambitious project was a celebratory lunch and a conversation at the now-closed Ellie’s ’50s Diner in 2005 in Delray Beach, former Vice Mayor and then-Civic Association President Bob Ganger recalled.
The association-sponsored luncheon honored workers from Ohio and Kentucky who were helping restore power to Gulf Stream after Hurricane Wilma struck.
Ganger asked the president of the workers’ firm what the town could do to be less vulnerable to high winds. “And he said bury your overheads,” Ganger said.
What followed was a contentious vote and an even more contentious system of special assessments to pay for the work. Residents approved the plan to bury the utility lines in 2011 and agreed to bear the then-expected $5.5 million cost.
“I honestly believe it was the right thing to do. I believed it when I started the project and I believe it today, but we’ll only find out when we have another hurricane and we’ll see just how well the system can be put back together again,” Ganger said.
Construction was to have begun in May 2012 but didn’t get going until late 2013. The original completion target for the south and north phases of the project was somewhere in the first half of 2015.
Cyclical economic factors contributed to delays and overruns. Coming out of a recession, contractors were looking for work and gave low bids. Material prices also were low. Utility companies downsized their staffs, pushing into early retirement experienced workers who knew how to handle complicated projects.
In 2016 with the national economy rolling again, the cost of most everything had gone up and companies were understaffed. The entire undergrounding project cost $6.5 million. Gulf Stream officials approved spending an additional $510,000 that year from the general budget to underwrite the work.
The project south of Golfview Drive finished in 2018. Work on the second phase, from Golfview north, started in late 2016. At one point, Gulf Stream sued AT&T Inc. to get it to finish burying its lines.
“I don’t think there’s any question. It took longer; it was more expensive than we anticipated. But in the long run it’s certainly going to be worth it,” Mayor Scott Morgan said in July.
The last poles removed were those along State Road A1A.
“As a historian,” Ganger said, “I think every once in a while you ought to step back and say, what did we do, how did we do it and what was the outcome. What we did I thought was extremely well done. The outcome took long, a lot longer than we anticipated.”

By Joel Engelhardt

The party activist who said she instigated the local Republican Party’s censure of state Rep. Mike Caruso faces him for the Republican nomination for state House in the newly drawn District 87.
A Highland Beach commissioner who has put $200,000 into her own campaign goes against a Russian-born adoptee who calls herself an “America-first patriot” for the Republican nomination in Boca Raton-area District 91.
And two newcomers, one well-ensconced in the local Republican Party, face off in state Senate District 26, with the winner facing Democratic incumbent Lori Berman in the Nov. 8 general election.
Those are the state House and Senate primary battles that appear on the Aug. 23 ballot for voters who live on the South County barrier islands. Several unchallenged candidates will move directly to the general election without a primary. Here’s a breakdown of the six candidates in the three contested races:

House District 87: Mike Caruso vs. Jane Justice
Caruso, 63, a Delray Beach resident, won his first state House seat in 2018 when he defeated Democrat Jim Bonfiglio by 32 votes out of nearly 80,000 cast. He beat Bonfiglio again in 2020, but this time by 11,000 votes.
Then came redistricting, and the state split the South County barrier islands that he used to serve into three House districts. He’s running in Republican-leaning District 87, which starts at the Boynton Inlet and covers Hypoluxo, Lantana, Manalapan and South Palm Beach, as well as large swaths of West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens, before ending at Marcinski Road in Jupiter.
Caruso’s Delray Beach oceanfront condo, listed on his 2021 financial disclosure form as a $3.3 million asset, is no longer in the district, meaning he’ll have to establish residency to the north if he wins. In all, Caruso reported a net worth of $4.1 million.
In the past few months, Caruso faced an uprising from within the Republican Party of Palm Beach County. The party executive committee voted to censure him and block him from running again as a Republican after he endorsed a Democrat, Katherine Waldron, in her four-way primary for the House District 93 seat covering Wellington. 
He said he made the endorsement because he and Waldron, a Port of Palm Beach commissioner, worked well together on Bahamas hurricane relief and he considered her a friend.
But he said he casts party line votes 99% of the time and retained the support of the state Republican Party, which not only did not oust him but has given him $20,650 in staffing and polling assistance since June 21, according to Caruso campaign reports. 
In total, Caruso has raised $146,000 as of July 15 and spent $61,000.
His opponent, Jane Justice, said she led the campaign to censure Caruso when she found out he had endorsed Waldron, whom she called “a radical Democrat.”
“I question why Caruso is in our party,” Justice said.
Justice, 66, says she’s a grass-roots activist, not a politician. Her campaign website says she will fight for election integrity, school choice, parents’ rights and against mask and vaccine mandates and inappropriate sexual material in children’s schoolbooks.
“I’m a ‘We the people’ candidate,” she said. “People know who I am. When our constitutional rights are being infringed on, I’m going to stand up.”
She spoke recently before the Palm Beach County Commission on election integrity, challenging the accuracy of machines that help duplicate damaged ballots so they can be fed through counting machines.
She said she wants to severely limit voting by mail because it has ushered in “a lot of fraud” and ballots should be counted by hand, not by a tabulating machine that could be connected to the internet. 
Like Caruso, she supports the recently enacted 15-week ban on abortion in Florida. While he wouldn’t take a position on an outright ban, which may be proposed in the next legislative session now that the Supreme Court has removed the federal right to abortion, Justice said she believed there needs to be some exceptions that would have to be decided by a doctor and patient.
She has raised $22,000 through July 15, about half in loans from herself, and spent nearly $10,000. She lists her 2021 net worth as $410,000, including her Greenacres condo, which is not in the district.
The primary winner will face Democrat Sienna Osta in the general election.

House District 91: Christina DuCasse vs. Peggy Gossett-Seidman
The Delray Beach woman competing with Highland Beach Commissioner Peggy Gossett-Seidman portrays herself as an “America-first patriot.” 
“I love America and I love the Constitution,” Christina DuCasse says on her campaign website. “I grew up in Boca Raton and I have spent the last 20 years invested in this city.”
DuCasse, 29, a first-time candidate for office, does not mention that she was born in Russia, the birthplace listed on her September 2017 marriage license to Boca Raton firefighter Dustin DuCasse. 
Responding to a call about her birthplace, DuCasse said she had been born in Russia, adopted at the age of 7, raised in South Florida and is an American citizen. She declined to discuss her adoption further or to discuss the issues facing voters in District 91, but she agreed that her personal story made her more conscious of the importance of liberty. 
“I hope to be a voice to stand for freedom,” she said.
On her website, she stakes out positions in line with Gov. Ron DeSantis on border security, mask and vaccine mandates and critical race theory.
On elections, she supports ending early voting, limiting mail-in ballots to people in the military and “those who absolutely need it” and “paper ballots only — no machines!” It is not clear if she would support hand-counting of ballots.
On abortion, she writes, she will “fight for the rights of all people, including the unborn.”
Through July 15, she raised $12,300 and spent $7,200. She listed her net worth as $249,761, including the $430,000 value for her townhome outside the district in Delray. She reported her primary income in 2021 of $22,000 came from cleaning houses. 
For Gossett-Seidman, the triumph of getting three bills passed this year by the state Senate and House for projects in Highland Beach, where she has served as a commissioner since 2018, met the harsh reality of Gov. DeSantis’ veto pen.
She understood his veto of the two biggest items, requests for $700,000 toward drainage improvements along State Road A1A and $400,000 for a new fire station, because the money is available in a different state program, one she and the bill sponsor, Caruso, are pursuing. 
Gossett-Seidman, 69, born in Michigan, has lived in Highland Beach since 1991. She first won her Highland Beach commission seat in a four-candidate race in 2018 and was re-elected to a three-year term without opposition in 2021. 
She has raised $275,000 through July 15, including $25,000 from the Florida House Republican Campaign Committee and $200,000 as a personal loan. She has spent $52,700. 
She listed her 2021 net worth at $22.2 million, including her Intracoastal-facing $4 million home. But the bulk of her fortune, $17.2 million, is in Apple stock, for which she credited her husband, a doctor, who bought it in the 1990s when the stock was selling for less than $1. 
Despite the money, the former sportswriter said she drove her 2005 Suburban until it conked out on a recent trip to Tallahassee, wears 2-year-old tennis shoes and clips coupons.
“What can I say? I’m very Midwest that way,” she said.
She supports the state’s 15-week abortion ban but said she doesn’t expect the Legislature to ban abortion entirely. “I’m flexible. I will look at all the facts.”
She harbors some concerns about election integrity but said it really falls on the election supervisors in the state’s 67 counties. 
She is not a supporter of mask mandates, saying “in the beginning it seemed like a great idea but after a while the science wasn’t there to wear a mask.” 
She agrees with removing some books from classrooms, describing a kindergarten book citing the terms KKK and negro. “I don’t know why you need to teach a 5-year-old that. It makes no sense,” she said.
DuCasse and Gossett-Seidman face off for the seat formerly held by Emily Slosberg-King, who is not seeking re-election. The district includes all of Boca Raton, most of Highland Beach and much of west Boca.
The winner faces Democrat Andy Thomson, a Boca Raton City Council member.

Senate District 26: Steve Byers vs. Bill Wheelen
Since 2015, Bill Wheelen has been volunteering with the local Republican Party. Earlier this year, he said he received the group’s Jean Pipes Award for volunteer service at a Mar-a-Lago dinner headlined by Donald Trump and DeSantis. 
While he contemplated a run for the congressional seat held by Lois Frankel, he saw the crowded field of Republican challengers and said he opted for the state Senate seat now held by Democrat Lori Berman. 
At the same time, Steve Byers decided to run, creating a two-way race for the nomination.
While Wheelen answered questions and discussed issues with The Coastal Star, Byers, who appears on shared campaign postcards with DuCasse, did not respond to repeated phone calls.
Both men live in the sprawling district, which extends along the beach from Boca Raton’s Red Reef Park to the Boynton Inlet and stretches west to Belle Glade. Wheelen, 68, lives in Wellington; Byers, who will turn 54 in August, lives off of Hagen Ranch and Lake Ida roads west of Delray.
While Berman has raised $127,000 without a primary opponent, Wheelen has nearly $11,000, including $7,000 in loans from himself, and Byers has $5,000, including $4,800 he lent his campaign. 
Wheelen listed his net worth at $765,000, including $720,000 for the value of his home. 
Byers listed his net worth at $2.6 million, including a $210,000 Porsche 930, three properties in the Pittsburgh area and $1.3 million for his Wellington home.
On the abortion issue, Wheelen, a practicing Catholic, admits to being conflicted.
“I follow church teaching. However, I’m also more pragmatic than that. It’s really not my place to tell you what you should do. If science says 15 weeks, that’s where we stop,” he said.
He has concerns about election integrity, particularly fraud through vote-by-mail ballot harvesting, and opposes mask mandates. 
His No. 1 priority is school safety, which he says requires hardening schools and spending whatever it takes.
“Gun control has nothing to do with it,” he said. “The more gun control we have, the less law-abiding citizens have them.”
He writes on his website about how his father barely had enough money to pay rent and wouldn’t eat until the children did. He took a job as a janitor on Wall Street and became a trader, putting two children through college. 
Byers calls himself a “serial entrepreneur” on his website. He parlayed success in Amway sales into a consulting business that he said worked on projects for IBM and the CIA. Among businesses he started since then is one as a beekeeper. 
“I’ve got thick skin,” he writes on his website. “I have taken the stings of the bees to put honey on your table. I will take the stings of politics to put honesty in your government.”

You can find a story online with House maps at https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-new-map-carves-barrier-island-into-three-district. A Senate story is at https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-senate-seats-changing-as-well.

For a sample ballot go to: www.pbcelections.org

By Jane Smith and Mary Hladky

After years of frustration with a state law that prevented cities and counties from regulating outdoor smoking, Delray Beach and Boca Raton are finally in position to clear the air at their beaches and parks.
Both cities are taking advantage of a new state law that allows local governments to impose cigarette smoking bans in outdoor areas.
The proposed smoking bans at beaches and parks, passed on first reading in Delray Beach on July 19 and introduced in Boca Raton on July 26, could take effect in August if approved as expected. The ordinances also would cover vaping (using electronic devices).
But cities still won’t be able to stop anyone from lighting up a stogie outdoors, because the new state law exempts the smoking of unfiltered cigars from local regulation.
“To me, it makes no sense,” Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer said. “Cigar smoke travels further and typically is more potent.”
State Sen. Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, told Delray Beach commissioners during her legislative update at their June 7 meeting that the cigar exemption was kept in place because one state senator wanted it.
Despite the cigar exemption, the new law is welcome news.
Local governments have railed against state laws that take control out of their hands, as had been the case with outdoor smoking and continues with firearm regulations. While cities and counties may prefer local control, the state on some issues sees the need for uniform laws and preempts local governments from making their own rules.
Berman called the new state law “a reverse preemption,” giving back control to local officials on the smoking issue.
Boca Raton’s planned ordinance is one victory for Singer in his years-long attempts to end state preemptions that prevent cities from enacting their own laws on local matters.
“This is one rare instance where the state has not preempted us and returned home rule back to cities on a specifically local issue,” Singer said.
Boca Raton did what it could in the past to discourage smoking at public beaches and parks. While it could not ban smoking, it posted signs urging visitors not to smoke.
The state took away the ability of local governments to regulate outdoor smoking in 2003. At one point, Sarasota County ignored the state law and imposed a beach smoking ban, but the ban was later thrown out in court.
In 2013, then-State Rep. Bill Hager, R-Boca Raton, filed legislation to allow local governments to ban smoking at parks and beaches, but it didn’t pass.
Local governments had to wait until July 1 when the state changed the Florida Clean Indoor Air Act to the Florida Clean Air Act, allowing local control of smoking at public beaches and parks.
Boca Raton will fine violators $100. Delray Beach has not set its fine schedule.

By Steve Plunkett

Ocean Ridge Police Officer Nubia Savino has ended her 5-year-old lawsuit against former Vice Mayor Richard Lucibella in a confidential, out-of-court settlement.
The resolution came just two days after a mediator declared both sides at an impasse. Dismissal of the lawsuit was posted to the court’s docket on June 20.
Richard Slinkman, Savino’s attorney, was limited in what he could say about the case.
“The matter has been resolved and she has dismissed her lawsuit,” he said.
Savino, who filed suit as Nubia Plesnik and later married, was part of the police team that charged Lucibella with resisting arrest in October 2016.
Her lawsuit, filed in June 2017, alleged Lucibella “committed a battery upon [her] by intentionally causing harmful or offensive contact with [her] by pushing [her] and further physically contacting her during the course of the arrest.”
A second count claimed Lucibella’s actions were negligent.
Lucibella, now 68, had $10 million in insurance for personal liability. Savino’s suit said she was seeking at least $15,000 in damages, the legal threshold.
Slinkman had said Savino suffered from shoulder pain after the arrest and only wanted what a jury felt was fair and just.
“I can tell you that I do not expect such to be in excess of Mr. Lucibella’s $10 million insurance policy,” Slinkman said when the suit was filed.
Much has happened in the courts since then.
Lucibella faced two felony charges — resisting arrest with violence and battery on Savino’s colleague, Officer Richard Ermeri — and a misdemeanor, use of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol.
He was found not guilty in February 2019 of the felonies but guilty of simple battery, a misdemeanor. The firearm charge was dropped at the start of the trial.
The next month Lucibella appealed the misdemeanor battery verdict, but the 4th District Court of Appeal in April 2020 upheld his conviction without comment.
In October 2020 he filed a police brutality lawsuit against Savino, Ermeri and the town of Ocean Ridge. The town was dropped as a defendant last November.
The case is now at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta after the officers’ lawyers appealed a judge’s pretrial ruling.
The genesis of all the legal activity was a 2016 scuffle at Lucibella’s oceanfront home. Savino, Ermeri and Sgt. William Hallahan went there after neighbors reported hearing shots fired. They confiscated a .40-caliber handgun and found five spent shell casings on the backyard patio.
The gun was later determined to belong to Police Lt. Steven Wohlfiel, a friend of Lucibella’s who was visiting.
During the arrest, Lucibella was pinned to the patio pavers and suffered injuries to his face and ribs. Savino said in her initial police report that she went to the department-approved urgent care center for “injuries to the left side of my body,” including shoulder, arm, wrist and foot. She also reported being placed on restricted duty.
Lucibella sold his home at 5 Beachway North in June 2021 for $8.6 million after buying a $1.7 million house in a county pocket next to Jupiter.

By Larry Barszewski

Briny Breezes officials are considering a citation system to enforce applicable town codes, but they have to decide if some of the infractions should even be on the town’s books in the first place.
“Something as simple as spitting on sidewalks, that’s not something that I think you want the Police Department enforcing,” Ocean Ridge Police Chief Richard Jones said at the Town Council’s July 28 meeting. His department provides police services to the town.
The council’s goal is to have a system, similar to one in place in Ocean Ridge, that would allow police to ticket code violators. The fines for the offenses would be fixed at a set amount and violations would not have to go before a special magistrate.
“Many of the listed violations do not lend themselves to traditional code enforcement, where you would go before a special magistrate and seek daily fines until there’s compliance,” Town Attorney Keith Davis said.
But Jones, who was originally receptive to the idea, was surprised by what his officers might have to undertake.
“I did not anticipate seeing such a broad list of ordinances that were being expected for us to enforce through the citation process,” Jones said.
The codes also include many violations already covered by state law, he said.
The council asked Davis to meet with Jones to narrow the scope of what ordinances would be good to have in a citation program, leading to another issue.
“If you can’t or you’re not going to enforce them, do you want to keep them on the books at all? That’s a much bigger discussion, but that may be a discussion that needs to happen,” Davis said.
The council agreed and said it would be good to do a deep dive into the town’s ordinances and winnow out code violations that aren’t needed or could be covered in the corporation’s regulations instead.
Among the items covered by the ordinances are requiring a bell or horn on a bicycle, prohibiting spitting on sidewalks and other public places, disturbing religious worship, not allowing bike riders on sidewalks and even outlawing things like odor and “unnecessary noises.”
When the ordinances to be enforced through citations are determined, Davis suggested breaking them into categories with differing fines:
• Class 1 (less severe) violations: $50 fine for a first offense, $100 for second, $250 for third and $500 for fourth and subsequent violations. Examples could include careless riding of a bicycle or gambling.
• Class 2 (midrange) violations: $100 for first offense, $200 for second, $300 for third and $500 for fourth and subsequent violations. Examples could include having a fire on the beach or indecent exposure.
• Class 3 (more serious) violations: $250 for first offense and $500 for each subsequent violation. Examples could include building a fire without a permit or damaging dune vegetation.
“Regardless of the class, I think there are a lot of things on here that should be removed,” Alderman Bill Birch said. “I don’t know anybody in Briny Breezes that is going to call the police over odor.”
Davis is expected to bring back additional information for the council’s Aug. 25 meeting.

Shooting in town
In other matters, Jones briefed the council on a shooting that took place in the town between 12:30 and 1:30 a.m. on July 27.
“The victim in this case is doing well, is recovering,” Jones said. “This seems to be a very specific, isolated incident and I would not be concerned for the public safety of every other resident at this moment in time. If we get to a point in our investigation where we change that, we will definitely let the community know.”
When contacted by The Coastal Star following the meeting, Jones said he would not release the police report because it is an active investigation.

Update: The Police Department released a copy of the police report on Aug. 3. It said the 70-year-old victim told police she had been sleeping, but woke up at 11:30 p.m. in pain. When she went to the bathroom at about 1:30 a.m., she noticed she had been shot in the hand near the wrist. A neighbor who drove the woman to the hospital told police she heard what could have been a gun shot sometime between 1:30 and 2 a.m., but wasn't certain. The victim told police she lives alone and there are no guns in her home. The bullet was lodged in the woman's hand when she went to the hospital, the report said.

Tax rate’s a 10 — again
The Town Council also set the town’s preliminary tax rate, which continues to be at the maximum allowed under state law, of $10 for every $1,000 of taxable value. That amounts to a 13.3% tax increase due to rising property values in town. The first public hearing on the town’s budget and tax rate will be at 5:01 p.m. Sept. 8 at Town Hall.

By Jane Smith

A former Delray Beach water quality inspector, who was reorganized out of her job in January, has filed a federal lawsuit against the city, the city manager and the Utilities Department director.
Christine Ferrigan, who received Florida whistleblower protection in September 2020 from Palm Beach County’s inspector general for her reclaimed water information, said she was let go in January — five days after she filed a written retaliation complaint against two of her Utilities Department supervisors.
The city, though, has another reason. City Manager Terrence Moore said in January that Ferrigan’s position was eliminated in a reorganization “done for efficiency and austerity reasons.”
This is Ferrigan’s second legal action against the city this year and the first one against the city manager and utilities director. The city declined to comment about the suit, which was filed July 25.
“The City is unable to provide information on matters that are under litigation,” wrote Laurie Menekou in a July 27 email response to The Coastal Star. Menekou is the outside spokeswoman on matters concerning the Delray Beach reclaimed water system.
In Ferrigan’s lawsuit, she alleges her U.S. and Florida constitutional rights were violated. She is seeking back pay, a promotion similar to the ones she had applied for but was not selected, and compensatory damages against the three defendants. She’s also seeking punitive damages against Moore and Utilities Director Hassan Hadjimiry “for her pain, emotional and mental suffering, stress, humiliation and reputational harm.”
Her first legal action, a complaint filed in April with the Occupational Safety & Health Administration, named only the city. It also asked for her son to be reinstated with back pay to his position in the Public Works Department, from which it said he was fired March 2 in retaliation against Ferrigan.
Though her son’s name was not mentioned in the suit, the only male to be fired that week was Cody Moss, who had been a parts expediter in the Fleet Division of Public Works, according to information the city provided The Coastal Star. He also shared a home address with Ferrigan.
Moss, who was hired in May 2021, ran afoul of his supervisors over ordering parts electronically instead of over the telephone, the department’s preferred method, according to written reprimands dating back to December in his personnel file. Moss was still in his probationary period at the time he was fired.
One of Ferrigan’s attorneys, Ezra Bronstein, described the difference between the two legal actions as “strategic.”
The available remedies from OSHA are for violations of environmental law, Bronstein said, not of Ferrigan’s constitutional rights.
“Ferrigan is the type of person the whistleblower law was designed to protect,” Bronstein said. “She was raising the red flag about the treated wastewater in the drinking water. ... And then they had her train her replacements.”
Since December, Delray Beach is operating under a five-year consent order, an agreement with the state Department of Health stemming from the city’s reclaimed water problems.
On Dec. 7, the city hand-delivered a check to the Health Department, as required in the consent order. The check covered a $1 million civil fine and $21,193.90 for costs and expenses of the Health Department’s investigation.
The Health Department began looking into the city’s reclaimed water system in January 2020, when a South Ocean Boulevard resident called to say she was not properly informed of a cross connection found on her street in December 2018. A cross connection occurs when reclaimed water pipes carrying highly treated wastewater used for lawn irrigation are wrongly connected to the drinking water lines.
After the Health Department became involved, the city spent more than $1 million on inspections and adding missing backflow preventers to stop the reclaimed water from mixing with drinking water. The city’s reclaimed water program began in 2008.
Ferrigan, hired in June 2017, claims she ran afoul of city management because of the information she supplied to the Health Department during its investigation. That included information about illnesses potentially linked to the cross connections.
However, an investigation by the Palm Beach County Office of Inspector General completed in May 2021, done at the request of the Health Department, was not able to link the illnesses of the South Ocean Boulevard residents to the reclaimed water.
This is Ferrigan’s second whistleblower battle with a South County coastal city.
She claimed whistleblower status in 2008 after she was fired from Boca Raton’s water department. She sued the city over the firing.
Ferrigan received $322,500 and her attorneys $215,000 in a settlement with Boca Raton’s insurance company in 2014 the day before the trial was to start. The city did not admit any wrongdoing.

By Jane Smith

The Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency will let federal officials decide if the former operators of Old School Square broke any rules when accepting federal pandemic-related aid.
The CRA board directed staff on July 14 to send a letter to the Small Business Administration’s Inspector General Hannibal Ware, pointing out the possibility that the former operators may have double-dipped when spending the federal money.
The CRA has talked about suing the former operators — Old School Square Center for the Arts — to recoup $187,500 it had given the group for the 2021 fiscal year. The group has not provided requested financial records to the CRA, which terminated its contract as of February.
Instead of suing or spending money to cover the costs of pursuing the group’s financial records, Deputy Vice Mayor Juli Casale suggested the new course of action.
“But what we know, today, from (the city’s) internal auditor there was an issue of double-dipping,” Casale said. “Why don’t we just report that and have that other government entity investigate and get back its money.”
The letter was sent via email and certified mail on July 25 by the CRA’s outside counsel, Sanaz Alempour.
The former operators received a $309,735 paycheck protection loan that was later turned into a grant. The money was supposed to be used for employee salaries to cover those laid off at the start of the pandemic. The CRA was concerned that it may have already paid for those salaries through funding it had given the operators. The former operators did not respond to The Coastal Star’s request for comment.

By Tao Woolfe

Although a Police Department merger with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office was not on the Boynton Beach City Commission’s Aug. 2 agenda, more than 20 members of the audience spoke out against the idea as the topic dominated the meeting.
The residents’ slogan was “say no to PBSO,” for several reasons. They cited the sheriff’s refusal to use body- and dash-cams; refusal to carry Narcan to treat narcotics overdose victims; and what they said was PBSO’s generally poor record of dealing with minorities.
The comments were spurred by PBSO’s 11-page proposal to the city last month outlining what the office said would be “greatly enhanced security and depth of law enforcement.” The annual estimated cost would be $42 million.
Boynton Beach’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2022-23 calls for a total of $38.3 million for police services.
Commissioners agreed the proposal did not offer enough detail about costs and services.
“Citizens of Boynton Beach, I hear you,” Commissioner Woodrow Hay said. He made a motion that the city immediately cease negotiations with PBSO. But the motion failed because the other commissioners said they needed more information — and community input —before making a decision.
Mayor Ty Penserga asked city staff to present a comparison of services, staff and budget offered by the Boynton Beach Police Department and the PBSO. No date was set for the presentation.
The possibility of bringing PBSO in to replace the Police Department was raised following months of anger — especially from the Black community — after a 13-year-old boy was killed during a high-speed police chase Dec. 26. The boy, Stanley Davis III, crashed his dirt bike at 85 mph on North Federal Highway with Officer Mark Sohn in pursuit.
Members of the youngster’s family, friends and supporters have crowded into City Commission meetings for months, asking for the city to fire those responsible.
Nevertheless, residents of all races reiterated Aug. 2 they do not want the PBSO to replace the city’s Police Department. Instead, the force should be winnowed of bad officers and more enlightened policies enacted, they said.
In a statement released on July 28, Penserga said no decision would be made about merging with PBSO until there is “significant community input, staff and commission reviews, and robust public discussion, including public hearings with citizen input.”
The 11-page proposal from Sheriff Ric Bradshaw was sent to Penserga on July 21. It came in response to an overture earlier this year from then City Manager Lori LaVerriere.
In early April, the City Commission had asked LaVerriere to look into potential benefits of contracting for police services with PBSO.
According to the response, Bradshaw believes the city would benefit mightily.
The proposal claims PBSO would focus on communication, customer service and community policing. Specifically, the sheriff said, the city would benefit from gaining the “experience of advanced, cutting-edge training, equipment, and technology.”
The proposal says the PBSO would absorb the Police Department personnel, although the sheriff would replace the police chief. PBSO would handle hiring and training, union negotiations, and liability resulting from the actions of law-enforcement personnel.
“In a contract for law-enforcement services, the city is the customer, and we provide the service,” the sheriff wrote. “Boynton Beach retains their sense of ownership by allowing the same employees to service the city while maintaining input in a productive forum with PBSO.”
The officers would operate out of the existing Police Department facility. Police vehicles would say Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, and City of Boynton Beach in smaller letters. “No local control will be lost,” the proposal says.
Here’s what residents could expect, per the PBSO proposal:
• Sworn deputies providing 24/7 patrol, 365 days a year.
• Enforcement of state statutes and city ordinances.
• Community policing philosophy.
The proposal explains community policing as a way residents can connect with their community and its services.
PBSO says it uses crime analysis to develop strategies to reduce crime, improve neighborhood appearance and create a sense of pride and ownership among the residents, the sheriff wrote. Officers act as liaisons between the communities and outside agencies and service providers.
Healing the rift between the police and the community is especially important to Boynton Beach, officials have said.
Sohn was cleared of all charges in late March by a Florida Highway Patrol investigation. FHP concluded Davis was unlawfully fleeing an attempted traffic stop and going 85 mph in a 35-mph zone.
The Boytnon Beach Police Department is still conducting its own investigation.

Elva Culbertson of South Palm Beach served on the Town Council and now writes a monthly newsletter for her condo about what’s happening in town government. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star

Elvadianne “Elva” Culbertson spent much of her adult life analyzing military maneuvers and strategy for a Washington, D.C.- based U.S. Navy think tank.
Nowadays she analyzes the governmental maneuvering of South Palm Beach for a monthly newsletter she writes for the Southgate condominium. She rarely misses a town meeting.
Both jobs require similar skills — persistence, close observation, objective analysis, an ability to drill down to the core of an issue, and a keen interest in current affairs.
Culbertson’s wry sense of humor adds a refreshing layer of whimsy to otherwise serious topics.
“You know the old joke — I can’t tell you exactly what I did for the Center for Naval Analysis or I’d have to kill you. But I was a documentation analyst,” Culbertson said. “I looked at military strategy and naval exercises for ships, subs and aircraft.”
Culbertson was one of few women in the field at the time, and her work was prized for its attention to detail. She specialized in anti-submarine warfare strategies.
More than 30 men on maneuvers at sea would report on their ships’ effectiveness and weaknesses, and Culbertson would “put it all together and give an analysis of it.”
Later on, Culbertson worked in environmental research and then returned to naval strategy.
Upon retiring from military life 17 years ago, she moved to South Palm and took a job writing the town’s newsletter.
She found the job “stifling,” saying her work was so heavily edited by a council member it barely resembled her original text.
After leaving that job, Culbertson served on the Town Council for 21/2 years, first as an appointee and then winning the seat when she was unopposed.
In the past couple of years she has enjoyed a more private life with Denny, her husband of 36 years. She has two sons and a stepson.
Culbertson says she attends almost every town meeting — including advisory board meetings — and reports back to her neighbors via the Southgate newsletter.
“I think I am considered the elder statesman,” among the town officials, she said.

— Tao Woolfe

Q: Where did you grow up and go to school? How do you think that has influenced you? 
A: I started out in the Germantown section of Philadelphia, replete with Revolutionary War history, and went to a high school for “gifted girls.” That, coupled with being an accountant’s daughter, made me incredibly focused on detail — a factor which has been both a blessing and a curse.

Q: What professions have you worked in? What professional accomplishments are you most proud of?
A: A young woman starting a career in the early ’60s did not really have the advantage of looking at her job as a profession. It was a time of, “It’s nice you graduated college, honey, how fast do you type?”
But I started out in a social planning agency (the forerunner of the United Fund, which evolved into the United Way), where I gathered statistics for over 200 health and welfare facilities ensuring that services were provided where most needed.
I moved to the Washington, D.C., area where I worked for the Navy think tank, with which I still maintain contact; there I mostly reconstructed naval exercises.
Next, in Massachusetts I worked for an environmental research company at the dawn of the passage of the Environmental Protection Act. As a documentation specialist, I turned input from 17 disciplines into cohesive environmental impact statements.
Lastly, I returned to D.C. where I was employed by a federally funded research center — again supporting the Navy. Here my responsibilities increased to coordinating multiphased efforts concerned with expanding intermediate maintenance activities’ repair capabilities; preparing generic integrated logistic support detail specifications and associated contract data requirements lists for naval aircraft; and serving as administrative and graphic coordinator for an extensive portion of the Naval Sea Systems Command integrated logistic support training program.
That was where I had my proudest professional moment because I was awarded a letter of commendation from Adm. Robert Long, program executive officer of tactical aircraft programs, for my “part in the F-14 Program’s winning of the 1997 Secretary of Defense Superior Management Award.”
Although not far behind was winning first prize in international competition as newsletter editor for the Washington, D.C., Society of Logistics Engineers. They granted me an “Award of Excellence for Significant Contribution to Attainment of the Goals and Objectives of the Society.”
Then there is also a bit of pride in having an article I co-authored in a college textbook referred to as one that “will serve as an essential reference to all social impact assessors.”

Q: What advice do you have for a young person selecting a career today?  
A: While you ought to choose a career in which you have the potential to make a comfortable salary, more importantly you need to choose a field that will hold your interest, recognizing also that it is bound to change somewhat, so you also need to be flexible.
If you come to a point where others might perceive that you have failed, recognize that at worst it was a mistake, and in any event it is a learning experience. Move on, always maintaining your self-esteem.

Q: How did you choose to make your home in South Palm Beach?
A: To tell you the truth, I wound up here because one of my sons had looked at South Palm Beach after he accepted the position as treasurer of the South Florida Water Management District. He really liked what he saw [at Southgate condominium] but felt his neighbors would be older than his social preferences allowed. Well, as I was clearly old enough to be his mother — if that’s all that was the matter — I was ready to move in.

Q: What is your favorite part of living in South Palm Beach?  
A: South Palm Beach is a family — big enough, small enough, close enough, remote enough and financially stable. COVID has degraded that somewhat, but I have high hopes we’ll get back to enjoying each other’s company.
If we wind up with a new Town Hall, let’s hope we go for Mayor Bonnie Fischer’s idea of structural insulated panels so we can go back to spending money on events for the townspeople instead of millions of dollars for a building beyond our best interests.

Q: What book are you reading now?
A: The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles. It’s this month’s South Palm Beach Book Club’s choice. While often the choice is not one I would make independently, I relish discussing the story with the others, a pleasure I do not have with my independent selections.

Q: What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?  
A: Before the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, I would have said the 1812 Overture, but now it doesn’t feel right to celebrate Russian victory. I guess I need to find another candidate. As far as relaxing, I go for flute and piano on YouTube — no vocal.

Q: Do you have a quote that inspires your decisions?  
A: My mom used to always quote, “Laugh, and the world laughs with you; weep, and you weep alone. For this old Earth must borrow its mirth, but has trouble enough of its own.”
It might not seem inspirational, but it helps to remind you that whatever you are facing is small compared to global issues. So, maintain a positive attitude and you’ll keep your friends (and your willingness to keep trying).

Q: Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions? 
A: I’m not sure whether you can call family members mentors, but I really lucked out in that category. I had grandparents who came to this country with nothing but the desire to make a good life in America; parents who loved their kids and saw to it that they knew where they came from and where they were going; and siblings who set such good examples of joy and compassion. What else could I ask for?

Q: If your life story were made into a movie, who would you want to play you?
A: If it can’t be my granddaughter, I’d go for Mary Steenburgen. She’s versatile and accomplished with a warm smile and a quick wit. OK, she’s not exactly my twin, but she’s a good actress.

By Jane Smith

Assistant Police Chief Russ Mager will become the new Delray Beach police chief on Aug. 31. He is replacing Chief Javaro Sims, who will retire on Aug. 30.
A swearing-in ceremony for Mager and retirement celebration for Sims will occur at 6 p.m. Aug. 30 at the Atlantic High School auditorium.
Mager, 56, has served 26 years with the Police Department. In 2019, he was promoted to captain and the next year to assistant chief.
He was born in Tallahassee, but he grew up in Broward County. Mager has a bachelor’s degree in criminology from Florida State University.
Sims, who became police chief in May 2019, served through the pandemic, keeping in touch virtually with the city’s residents when necessary.
He was the first Black police chief for Delray Beach. The city has a 37.2% minority population, according to the latest census data.
Sims succeeded Jeff Goldman as chief. Both emphasized community policing as a way to engage with residents.
For the Black community, Sims became a role model for kids whose families lacked a dad, said Angie Gray, former city commissioner and current board member of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency.
Sims, she said, “was awesome and amazing” as police chief.
Sims has been with the department since 1992, after spending four years as a
teacher.

By Jane Smith

While the Delray Beach City Commission won a lawsuit filed against it by fired City Manager Mark Lauzier, it has decided not to recoup almost $20,000 in related legal expenses from him — in exchange for his not appealing the court decision.
Commissioners have unanimously approved a $19,096.67 settlement with Lauzier, whom they fired in March 2019.
The confidential settlement was on the commission’s July 19 consent agenda. After it was approved, The Coastal Star submitted a public records request for the confidential memo from City Attorney Lynn Gelin.
The settlement was the amount due the city to cover its attorney fees and costs, awarded by the court in April. To receive the release from paying the city, Lauzier agreed to dismiss his appeal, which was done on July 21. He also agreed to refrain from disparaging the city in written or spoken remarks and never seek re-employment with the city.
Lauzier currently serves as the budget manager for the St. Lucie County Commission, according to his LinkedIn profile.
At the March 1, 2019, special commission meeting, the city’s internal auditor reported that Lauzier had changed the city’s personnel manual without telling the City Commission, his boss.
Shortly after he was fired, Lauzier sued the city on a whistleblower claim and for breach of contract. The city won on both counts. A Palm Beach County jury ruled for the city in December on the breach of contract claim.
Gelin recommended approval of the settlement.
“While staff believes that there is no basis for Lauzier’s appeal, the cost and expense to defend same could be significant,” she wrote. “This settlement provides closure and finality and ensures that the City’s favorable verdict will stand.”

By Jane Smith

Despite a proposed decrease in the tax rate and the use of federal dollars to offset some budget increases, Delray Beach property owners will still be paying more in city taxes next year.
The proposed plan that was approved unanimously by the City Commission on July 12 includes a 14% increase in property taxes, $11.3 million more than for the current budget.
While the city’s taxable property values have soared more than 15% to $14.4 billion, commissioners plan to barely nudge the tax rate down. They set the proposed tax rate at $6.56 per $1,000 of property value, down slightly from the current tax rate of $6.66 per $1,000.
The debt service tax rate also will be reduced in the financial year that starts Oct. 1. The total proposed citywide tax rate is $6.76 per $1,000 of taxable value.
If the proposed rates are adopted, Delray Beach will receive $91.8 million in property tax money, which includes $18.7 million that will go directly to the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency. The CRA also receives money from taxes assessed by Palm Beach County.
The city’s proposed operating budget is $166.1 million, an 8% increase.
The tentative tax rate had to be set in July to allow the county property appraiser to mail notices in mid-August to every property owner in advance of September public hearings on the budget. The notices cover assessed values and proposed tax rates from all the county’s municipalities and taxing districts.
The Delray Beach rates can be lowered but not raised during the city’s budget hearings in September. A second budget workshop will be held at 3:30 p.m. Aug. 22.

Where to trim?
The mayor and all the other commissioners wanted to lower the tax rate but differed in how they would achieve that reduction.
Commissioner Ryan Boylston pointed out that other Florida cities and counties are using their American Rescue Plan Act dollars — awarded by the federal government to offset expenses during the pandemic — to build affordable housing. The city’s plan is to use $3.3 million in ARPA funds to balance its budget.
“I’m not comfortable using the ARPA funds to balance the budget when our reserves are at the high end,” he said.
Delray Beach has $41.8 million in reserves, an amount equal to 27% of the operating budget, according to City Manager Terrence Moore. Boylston said reserves should be used to balance the budget.
But Mayor Shelly Petrolia looked to the proposed budget for items to cut.
She questioned whether a new mobile stage for $250,000 is needed if the current stage has another year or two that it can last.
She also challenged the need to buy $300,000 of city vehicles in the next financial year, asking whether it is possible to spread the cost over two budget years. In addition, she questioned buying a city restroom trailer for $115,000. “Couldn’t we continue to rent one?” she asked.
Petrolia also wanted to know why the Police Department needs a second patrol boat, estimated to cost $120,000 after a $65,000 contribution from the city’s fleet fund. The city Police Department currently has a patrol boat donated by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office. The boat is 18 years old, will need a new engine soon at a cost of $25,000 and is not easily maneuvered, according to Ted White, Police Department spokesman.
Vice Mayor Adam Frankel agreed with finding more things to cut in the proposed budget. “Do you see any luxuries in the budget that can be cut?” he asked Finance Director Hugh Dunkley.

Positive additions
Petrolia praised the $125,683 cost for adding sidewalks to Andrews Avenue on the barrier island. At an April commission meeting, former Mayor Cary Glickstein described how the lack of sidewalks is a safety hazard for pedestrians. He saw an older woman fall out of her wheelchair after she was pushed onto the grass from the paved surface of Andrews to avoid being hit by a vehicle.
Other expenses were also deemed reasonable.
The city will spend $450,000 for a new phone system because the current one is not working properly. Another $200,000 will be used to create a time and attendance system that should solve problems noted by the city’s internal auditor. An audit this year found questionable payroll practices such as employees not writing down paid time off when it was taken. The city is in the process of creating a policy that requires full-time employees to note when they take paid time off.
At the Old School Square campus the city owns, sound and lighting improvements for the Pavilion stage will cost $120,000.
The Crest Theatre building that sits on the Old School Square campus needs another $1.3 million to finish the renovation work there, Moore said in his July 22 letter to the commission. He said the renovation money was included in next year’s capital budget.

As values increase, so do costs
While property values have increased, so have the city’s costs, Dunkley said. The city is self-insured for employee health insurance claims. Costs are projected to rise 19% or $2 million in the coming financial year, Dunkley said.
The city is finishing its employee compensation study to ensure its staff is paid properly. Moore asked for a $730,000 increase in his contingency fund to cover salary increases suggested by the study.
But Deputy Vice Mayor Juli Casale questioned whether it was the proper use of the contingency fund. Why not just give the money to the departments to disperse, she asked.
In action at their July 19 meeting, commissioners approved a 19.7% increase in the payments on residential utility bills — from $11.18 to $13.39 a month — to Waste Management to extend its trash-hauling contract from Oct. 1 to April 30. If the city needs another extension from May 1 to Sept. 30, 2023, the cost to residents will go up another 45.3%, from $13.39 to $19.45 per month.
The City Commission does not think the city was given proper notice about Waste Management’s wanting to end the contract at the end of September.

Editor’s note:

The Boca Raton City Council at a special Aug. 5 meeting unanimously repealed an ordinance that prohibits the use of conversion therapy on minors. Because council members acted on an emergency basis, the repeal is temporary. They will make it permanent at an Aug. 23 council meeting, when they are also expected to adopt a resolution that opposes conversion therapy for minors.

*****

By Mary Hladky

Boca Raton City Council members and Palm Beach County commissioners are being advised to repeal their bans on the controversial practice of conversion therapy.
The actions come shortly after a federal appeals court declined to reconsider a decision that struck down both the city’s and county’s ordinances.
The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on July 20 turned down the city’s and county’s requests that the entire court scrutinize a 2020 ruling by a three-judge panel that the bans were unconstitutional because they violated the free speech rights of two Palm Beach County therapists.
Since the ruling conflicts with decisions rejecting free speech challenges to bans by other federal appellate courts, the city and county potentially could appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Yet an adverse ruling by the high court would jeopardize other conversion therapy bans enacted by 21 states and about 100 cities and counties outside Florida that are not bound by the 11th Circuit’s decision, said Rand Hoch, president of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, who helped draft an ordinance that local governments could use as a model to prohibit use of the therapy on minors.
To avoid that outcome from a Supreme Court dominated by conservative justices, Hoch emailed county commissioners and Boca council members on July 28, asking that they repeal their ordinances and replace them with resolutions saying they oppose practicing conversion therapy on minors.
With the ordinances repealed, he said there will be no legal issue for the courts to decide.
The Human Rights Council, which supports LGBTQ youth, “does not want to jeopardize the existing conversion therapy bans,” he wrote.
County Attorney Denise Coffman, also on July 28, emailed county commissioners that she did not believe the county could win an appeal before the Supreme Court. She recommended the county end its legal defense of the ordinance and repeal it.
A Boca Raton spokeswoman said the city is aware of Coffman’s recommendation and that the city is “certainly disappointed” by the 11th Circuit’s ruling.
Boca Raton City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser has requested a private meeting with council members on the matter, but it had not been scheduled as of July 29. Such closed sessions are permitted to discuss litigation.
Conversion therapy seeks to change a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation. Many professional medical organizations, including the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, have found it causes anger, anxiety, depression, guilt, hopelessness and suicide.
States, counties and cities have passed ordinances similar to Boca Raton’s and the county’s on grounds that conversion therapy not only causes psychological harm but also wrongly presumes that homosexuality and gender nonconformity are mental disorders that can be cured.
After the 11th Circuit’s panel issued its 2-1 decision, 25 cities and counties across the country supported Boca Raton’s and the county’s legal effort by signing a friend-of-the-court brief written by attorneys for Miami Beach.
Other signers in South Florida included Broward County, Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Lake Worth Beach, Miami Beach, Oakland Park, Riviera Beach and West Palm Beach.
As is customary, the 11th Circuit judges in the recent ruling did not say why a majority would not grant an en banc rehearing by the full 11-member court.
While their decision not to rehear the case was stated in one sentence, it drew heated and sharply worded concurring and dissenting opinions that ran to 110 pages. In a concurring opinion, Judge Britt Grant, joined by Judges Elizabeth Branch and Barbara Lagoa — all appointed to the court by President Donald Trump — said the ordinances violated the First Amendment and called them “content-based restrictions of speech, not conduct.”
“The perspective enforced by these local policies is extremely popular in many communities. And the speech barred by these ordinances is rejected by many as wrong, and even dangerous. But the First Amendment applies even to — especially to — speech that is widely unpopular,” Grant wrote.
“What this Circuit has done — indeed all it has done — is uphold the protections of the First Amendment for unpopular speech,” she concluded. “That can be hard to do. But if the First Amendment only protected speech that judges and politicians approved of, it would not be of much use. We concur with the Court’s decision not to rehear this case en banc.”
In a 78-page dissenting opinion, Judge Robin Rosenbaum, joined by Judge Jill Pryor — both appointed by President Barack Obama — said that “every leading medical and mental-health organization” that has addressed conversion therapy “has uniformly denounced it.”
The concurring opinion incorrectly labeled “talk therapy” as “conversation” and “not medical at all,” she wrote. As a result, “no state or local government can require licensed mental-healthcare professionals to comply with any substantive standard of care at all in administering talk therapy. And no state or local government can even discipline licensed mental-healthcare professionals who violate the standard of care in administering talk therapy — no matter how incompetent or dangerous a practitioner’s practice of psychotherapy may be.
“That cannot be right. For that reason alone, this case demands en banc review.
“But that is not the only reason. Because the panel opinion effectively precludes all regulation of substantive talk therapy, it necessarily ensures that government cannot regulate types of talk therapy that significantly increase the risk of suicide and have never been shown to be efficacious.”

By Rich Pollack

More than a year after a sometimes contentious split in which Highland Beach told Delray Beach it no longer wants the city’s fire rescue services, the two municipalities are in talks to determine if — and how — they can work together down the road.
Fire chiefs from both communities met Aug. 1 to begin hammering out an agreement that would be beneficial both to Delray Beach and to Highland Beach, which is scheduled to start its own fire department in May 2024.
The meeting came just a few weeks after the county’s Emergency Medical Services Advisory Council tabled a vote on whether to recommend to the Palm Beach County Commission that Highland Beach receive a certification of need, and asked that the two municipalities talk about helping each other.
Details on how a partnership between the two communities would be structured are up in the air, with a fee-for-service option on the table.
“We have to figure out a framework for working with Delray,” said Highland Beach Town Manager Marshall Labadie. “In the long run, it will be good for both parties. It has the potential to be a win-win for both of us.
Delray Beach Fire Rescue Chief Keith Tomey said the last word on whether there will be an agreement with Highland Beach rests with city commissioners.
Tomey, who met with Highland Beach’s newly appointed fire chief, Glenn Joseph, said much of the initial discussion focused on how Delray Beach could assist Highland Beach if needed.
“My main focus is on the safety of my firefighters and the residents of Delray Beach and Highland Beach,” he said.
Highland Beach Mayor Doug Hillman said the town is looking forward to discussing an agreement. “We are happy to discuss mutual aid as long as it’s mutually beneficial,” he said.
Under the current agreement, Delray Beach staffs Highland Beach’s fire station with a rescue vehicle and a fire truck. Because that station is considered part of Delray’s overall system, backup vehicles are available from stations within the city limits.
In addition, the Delray Beach firefighters and paramedics assigned to Highland Beach currently respond to calls within Delray’s city limits. A recent study showed that the station was dispatched to about 670 calls a year in Delray, about half of its total calls.
Tomey said his department will be able to absorb those calls by filling almost two dozen open positions.
Highland Beach is planning to spend up to $10 million approved by voters to build a new station and include two fire trucks and two rescue vehicles.
“We have the ability to supply mutual aid service to adjacent municipalities,” Labadie said.
The EMS council’s vote is a potential stumbling block.
In order to provide emergency medical services to residents and potentially Delray Beach, Highland Beach must receive a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity, which must be approved by the County Commission.
During its meeting last month, members of the EMS council were prepared to vote on recommending approval but stopped when it was suggested that the decision be tabled until after Highland Beach and Delray Beach meet.
The council also asked for reassurances from Highland Beach that it would have three paramedics on each rescue wagon.
Prior to the tabling of the vote, Tomey expressed concern about whether Highland Beach’s plan to have seven firefighter/paramedics on a shift would be adequate.
Labadie, pointing out that Highland Beach averages about two calls per day, believes the proposed staffing levels are adequate but is not closing the door on a small increase in personnel per shift.
Both Labadie and Hillman say they are optimistic that the council will recommend that the County Commission approve the town’s application.
“We have public support, we have capacity, and we have proven value,” Labadie said.

By Rich Pollack

Highland Beach now has a new incoming fire chief, one with extensive experience in south Palm Beach County, who was chosen last month to lead the town’s effort to get its new fire department up and running.
Glenn Joseph, a veteran of more than three decades in fire service, including serving as chief in Boynton Beach and deputy chief in Boca Raton, was selected from a field of candidates after serving for almost a year as a fire consultant to Highland Beach.
“We think he’s going to be a spectacular chief and an outstanding community partner,” Town Manager Marshall Labadie said.
Joseph was one of five finalists who were interviewed for the position and stood out among the candidates, according to Mayor Doug Hillman.
“Nobody could hold a candle to Chief Joseph,” Hillman said. “He’s a fabulous choice.”
Hillman said that Joseph’s vast experience in fire rescue, as well as his understanding of the town’s needs — thanks to his months of consulting — were striking.
“He also fits right into our culture, and culture is very important in our little town,” Hillman said. “We have built a team spirit and Chief Joseph is definitely a team player.”
Joseph, 58, said he is excited about creating a new fire department and the challenges that come with it.
“How many firefighters get to start a department from the ground up?” he said. “It’s an opportunity I can’t pass up.”
The fire chief says his focus in the short term will be making sure the town obtains all the licenses and approvals it needs from county and state officials. He’ll also focus on developing policies and procedures and building the necessary infrastructure.
He expects to begin the process of hiring personnel in late fall or early winter and says the town will be looking for “the right people for the right jobs.”
In addition to being a veteran fire service administrator, Joseph is a paramedic and a nurse who worked in a trauma intensive care unit.
He has served as an adjunct instructor for the National Fire Academy since 1994 in areas related to emergency response to hazardous materials incidents.
After coming to Florida in 1976 from Saint Lucia in the Caribbean, Joseph worked for an ambulance service before joining Lantana Fire Rescue and then Boca Raton Fire Rescue.
While in Boca, he served as a firefighter, paramedic, hazardous materials technician, lieutenant, captain and paramedic supervisor before retiring in 2016 as deputy chief.
Soon after, he accepted the position as chief of Boynton Beach Fire Rescue and was there until 2019, when he left to begin a consulting practice.
Joseph holds associate’s degrees in business and nursing, and a bachelor’s degree in organizational management as well as a bachelor’s in nursing and a master’s degree in emergency management.
The chief said he is looking forward to working with the town staff and commission as well as working with nearby communities.
“We want to be good neighbors and collaborate with Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Boynton Beach and Palm Beach County,” he said.

By Rich Pollack

The Florida Department of Transportation will offer a preview this month of a major road-improvement project on State Road A1A through Highland Beach and part of Delray Beach that will include lane closures and other disruptions.
A public meeting at 6 p.m. Aug. 31 at Highland Beach Town Hall will share information about the $8.8 million resurfacing project, which is scheduled to begin in spring 2024 and continue until summer 2025.
The meeting, which will also be available virtually and posted online afterward, will include a presentation followed by an opportunity for people to ask questions.
Project manager Brad Salisbury said in addition to the resurfacing, the work will include 5-foot-wide bicycle lanes on both sides of A1A as well as improvements to drainage in swales.
The drainage improvements, designed to keep water from pooling on the roadway after a heavy rain, have long been sought by town leaders, while bicyclists have long expressed wishes for marked bicycle lanes.
To accommodate the bicycle lanes, Salisbury said, the pavement will need to be wider, with much of the expansion occurring on the west side of A1A. The project will also include upgrades to signage and pavement markings.
“There are going to be construction impacts and impacts to some landscaping,” he said.
To reduce inconveniences to motorists, work on the 3.35 miles of A1A will be done in phases, with work crews directing traffic during single-lane closures. Impacts to pedestrians are not expected, and engineers say access to all properties will be maintained throughout the project.
Those wishing to attend the meeting virtually or in person are asked to register at https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/520314613533228046
Participants can also dial in by calling 213-929-4221 and using access code 896-220-094.
A recording of the meeting will be posted at http://bit.ly/3LbAv9K.
“This is a good opportunity for residents to learn about the impacts they can expect for the duration of the project,” Highland Beach Town Manager Marshall Labadie said.

By Mary Thurwachter

A proposal two years in the making to turn the old Kmart shopping center into a mixed-use development with 231 apartments finally came before the Lantana Town Council on July 11.
But when council members couldn’t agree on how to proceed — and with staff recommending the project be rejected — they postponed a vote on it until Aug. 8. A council workshop will be held at 5:30 p.m. prior to the regular 6 p.m. meeting, where a vote is expected, so members can have more discussion about the project, dubbed Lantana Village.
The 18.6-acre site is owned by Saglo Development Corp. of Miami and being developed by the Morgan Group.
Cushla Talbut, an attorney with Greenberg Traurig who is processing the application, said “the $65 million investment would provide significant tax revenue increases for the town and revitalize a site that is definitely in need of some love.”
Development Director Nicole Dritz strongly recommended denial, saying the project was “not in line with the spirit or intent of town codes” and appeared to be a way of getting about 100 more apartments than would normally be allowed in the residential portion.
The plan calls for the old Kmart building to be demolished to make way for five, four-story buildings with elevators and an entry from Greynolds Circle. Amenities would be a dog park, gym, pool, upgraded parking lot and a pocket park on the north end of the site at the northwest corner of Dixie Highway and Hypoluxo Road. The apartments would be fenced in for security reasons.
Besides construction of studios and one- and two-bedroom apartments, the plans include cosmetic improvements for retail portions of the property, including Winn-Dixie, West Marine and the Lantana Pizza buildings. Four out-parcels — Bank of America, Dunkin’ Donuts, Burger King and a vacant restaurant formerly home to IHOP — are not part of the application.
Among the community benefits the project would provide, Talbut said, are enhanced landscaping with more than 500 trees, four electric car charging stations, and 24 units dedicated to workforce housing for professionals such as teachers, firefighters and police officers.
“We’re going to provide 1% of the construction cost for public artwork,” Talbut said. “Buildings will be constructed to certified national green building standards. Residents will be able to enjoy the proximity of retail shops and restaurants as well as some great community benefits such as the pocket park and artwork.”
This site is particularly challenging for a number of reasons, mostly due to the age of the buildings, Talbut said.
“The buildings went up in the 1970s and at that time there really was no landscape requirement,” Talbut said, “so you have parking lots and no landscaping. That was a challenge, to put as much greenery as we could on this.”
Additionally, some of the retail operations, such as Winn-Dixie and West Marine, have long-term leases.

Staff opposition
Dritz warned the proposed project is essentially three properties separated by fences with separate entrances and exits.
“Typically, a planned mixed-use development is a site with multiple uses combined together in a very cohesive design that encourages visitors to travel throughout the site and establishes a very clear sense of place,” she said.
“We feel that this project, however, almost draws an imaginary line around three entirely separate parcels that are otherwise unrelated,” she said, referring to the Winn-Dixie area, apartments and the Lantana Pizza area. “In fact, it feels this is an attempt to garner those 231 units on a site that only approximately 133 units would be allowed otherwise.”
She said very minor changes are proposed to the Lantana Pizza property and the Winn-Dixie area storefronts.
Vice Mayor Pro Tem Lynn “Doc” Moorhouse agreed with Dritz’s assessment.
“We can do a lot better,” he said.
“I just can’t get past a gated community in the middle of Lantana,” Vice Mayor Karen Lythgoe added. “It just doesn’t fit.”
Council member Kem Mason said he needed more time to digest all the pros and cons.
“I’ve heard a lot negative here tonight about this proposal but at the end of the day when they had the town meeting at Lantana Pizza, they got applause afterwards,” Mason said of the developers. “There are a lot of people who want this.”
He said he didn’t think it would be fair to vote on the site plan that night.
“I would like to table it until we can have another workshop very soon. Don’t make these people wait a long time,” Mason said.
Mayor Robert Hagerty said he wasn’t opposed to postponing the vote but had issues with putting a gated community inside a commercial space. He also was worried about traffic.
Lythgoe and Mason were concerned that council member Mark Zeitler, absent because of an accident at work, wasn’t there to vote on the matter.
Mason’s motion to postpone the vote until Aug. 8 passed 3-1, with Moorhouse dissenting.