INSETS BELOW: George Brown; Robert Weinroth; Al Zucaro
By Rich Pollack
The Boca Raton Airport Authority will be welcoming two new board members this month but their stay may be short lived if the Florida Commission on Ethics determines their controversial appointment by the Boca Raton City Council was improper.
Last month the City Council took the unusual step of appointing Deputy City Manager George Brown and one of its own members, Vice Mayor Robert Weinroth, to the independent Airport Authority board.
The appointments mark the first time since the authority was created in 2004 by an act of the state Legislature that a sitting City Council member or a member of the city staff has been appointed to the seven-member board, according to authority officials.
The decision — and Weinroth’s casting of the deciding vote on his own appointment — raised eyebrows and led to a complaint to the ethics commission filed by Boca Raton attorney Al Zucaro.
In a separate but related case, the ethics commission was already looking into a possible conflict of interest by another board member, Jack Fox, who owns a hanger at the Boca Raton Airport.
That case, sparked by an anonymous complaint that led to the authority’s attorney and Fox asking for a legal opinion from the ethics commission staff, was scheduled to go before the full ethics commission this month but has been delayed. In the interim, on the advice of the city’s attorney, Fox has been sitting out authority meetings.
Fox, like Weinroth and Brown, was appointed to the board by the Boca City Council, which appoints five of the authority’s seven members. The two others are appointed by the Palm Beach County Commission.
In the case of Weinroth and Brown, Zucaro is raising several questions, including whether the appointments will compromise the authority’s independence, which is spelled out in the state legislation that created it.
“This is a complete power grab,” he said. Zucaro contends that the appointment of Brown puts the deputy city manager in the precarious position of “having to serve two masters.”
“It’s clearly questionable to appoint a deputy city manager who reports directly to the city manager,” Zucaro said. “How, in any capacity, can he have an independent thought process to act on that board, independent of his actions on behalf of the City Council?”
He said the conflict of having to represent the authority and the City Council at the same time also applies to Weinroth.
“They’re not there to represent the best interest of the city, they’re there to represent the best interest of the Airport Authority,” he said. “It’s impossible to do both.”
Weinroth said he believes its possible to do both.
“I think the two interests are closely aligned,” Weinroth said.
While there are cases where changes to the airport — building or zoning issues — might come before the City Council, Weinroth said he doesn’t see a reason for concern.
“It would depend on the issue, but we can recuse ourselves if necessary,” he said.
Weinroth said the City Council’s decision to place both Brown and him on the airport authority was a reflection of discussions the council had during a strategic planning session.
“We felt that our lines of communication haven’t been at the level we would like to see,” he said. “With these appointments we’d like to address issues of concern to us.”
Prior to his appointment to the board, Brown served as the primary staff liaison between the city and the Airport Authority, which this year has a budget that includes $3.4 million in revenues and approximately $7 million in reserves.
One of the issues of concern, Weinroth said, is a policy of the Airport Authority that requires board members to report in writing any conversation he or she has with anyone else regarding issues that may come before the authority.
Weinroth said he does not plan to stay on the authority for his full two-year term, but will stay long enough to “make some points.” He also said that both he and Brown have agreed not to accept the $100 stipend authority members receive.
While questions have been raised about whether it was proper for Weinroth to cast the deciding vote to appoint himself to the authority, the vice mayor said he sought the advice of City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser, who determined it was acceptable.
Zucaro, in a letter to the City Council announcing that he had filed a complaint with the state ethics commission asked that the council delay the appointments until after the ruling. That’s unlikely, Weinroth said, since the city attorney has concluded it’s not necessary.
Airport Director Clara Bennett said she does not expect the questions surrounding the board appointments to impact the day-to-day operations of the airport.
“The airport will continue to operate in accordance with all state and federal regulations,” she said.
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