News

Related story: Boynton chief says Yannuzzi’s Briny role to differ from past

By Dan Moffett

    Briny Breezes council members say choosing the right police department to serve their town didn’t come down to questions about performance. The deciding factor was cost.

    “It was a tough decision. Either Boynton Beach or Ocean Ridge would do a good job for us,” said Council President Sue Thaler. “It was dollars and cents that made the difference between them.”
    With a 3-2 vote on Sept. 8, the council approved a three-year contract with Boynton Beach, ending a long-running relationship with the Ocean Ridge Police Department.
    “We tried to make an apple-to-apple comparison between them,” Alderman Bobby Jurovaty said. “And the one apple that stood out was price. It’s sad, really. There was nothing wrong with what Ocean Ridge did.”
    Jurovaty joined Thaler and Alderman Allen “Chick” Behringer in voting for the switch to Boynton; James McCormick and Christina Adams voted to stay with Ocean Ridge.
    Boynton Beach offered Briny Breezes a three-year contract that was roughly 10.6 percent lower in cost than Ocean Ridge’s: $618,792 compared with $691,965. Ocean Ridge also offered a five-year plan that  came in higher than Boynton’s at $665,352 for the first three years.
    Thaler said that, other than price, the contracts are “virtually identical” in services. Boynton officially takes over on Oct. 1.
    The contract with Boynton Beach returns Chris Yannuzzi as primary law enforcement contact in Briny Breezes.
    Yannuzzi was forced to resign as Ocean Ridge’s police chief in 2015 after a dispute with the town’s vice mayor, Richard Lucibella. Yannuzzi then joined Boynton’s Police Department as both volunteer reserve captain and as a contract employee in charge of code compliance.
    He will become the department’s “primary contact” for Briny residents and a deputy town marshal.
    “He is intimately familiar with the town and the people here,” said Boynton Police Chief Jeffrey Katz, who told the Town Council his agency was committed to delivering the policing the town wants.
    Ocean Ridge police have covered Briny Breezes for most of the past three decades, except for a three-year period between 2007 and 2010 when Boynton Beach had the contract. Briny residents were not happy with Boynton’s performance then and switched back to Ocean Ridge, many believing a smaller neighbor delivered better service. Boynton Beach has 155 sworn officers who police roughly 70,000 people; Ocean Ridge has 16 full-time officers who police 1,700.
    Katz said he has overhauled the department since taking over as chief three years ago and assured the council that performance will be better than before. He promised improved response times despite his mainland base, saying his officers typically beat the Boynton Beach Fire Department — with which Briny just signed a new long-term contract for service — to emergency calls.
Katz said his department can work with bridge tenders to ensure they can get to the island for emergencies and that Boynton will call on Ocean Ridge police for help if needed.
    Mayor Mike Hill, who participated in the meeting by phone and under the town charter didn’t have a vote, said he had concerns that the larger department might not understand  “that a soft touch often is the best way to deal with people in retirement communities like Briny Breezes.”
    Hill said when he lived in Highland Beach the town ran into trouble when it started hiring retired New York officers.
    Katz said he has raised hiring standards in Boynton and only 1.2 percent of applicants have gotten jobs.
    “It just so happens that none of the officers hired in the past three years have previously worked in New York,” he said.

    The chief told council members his department understands the type of community policing Briny Breezes wants and recognizes concerns they may have with the perception of big-city cops.
    Adams and McCormick said they were comfortable with the decision despite voting the other way.
    Adams said she thought Ocean Ridge was better equipped to keep the town safe and the cost difference didn’t matter.
“When you pan the money out over five years, it’s really not that much,” she said.
    McCormick said he supported Ocean Ridge “out of loyalty and because of the experience they have working here.”
    Ocean Ridge Police Chief Hal Hutchins said his department will continue to have a close working relationship with its counterpart in Boynton Beach, and that he will do what it takes to ensure the transition goes smoothly.