Related election information
Election overview:
Mayor's Race:
Council Seat A: Council race features accountant, attorney and real estate broker | Seat A candidate profiles (Grau, Korn, Ritchey)
Council Seat B: Incumbent faces off against founder and supporter of Save Boca | Seat B candidate profiles (Madsen, Pearlmen, Wigder)
Council Seat D: Seat D candidate profiles (Cellon, Sipple, Weinroth)
By Mary Hladky
Former Boca Raton City Council member Robert Weinroth is seeking a return to his former job, saying what he brings to the table is the experience he gained as both a council member and county commissioner.
He won a special election to the council in 2014 and then a three-year term without opposition in 2015. In 2018, he was elected to the Palm Beach County Commission and became county mayor.
After Weinroth lost re-election in 2022, he filed to run for the Palm Beach County School Board, but withdrew from that race and ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2024 in the Republican primary.
“I feel coming back to the City Council, especially now, with talk of redeveloping the downtown campus and Mizner Park, there is a lot of opportunity to help guide our city for the next 100 years,” he said of his candidacy.
Weinroth, a downtown resident, agrees with current council members that a new City Hall and Community Center are needed and that “it is important to focus on those needs.”
Now that the redevelopment plan has been downsized, Weinroth said it is “much closer” to what he thinks is needed, but “it is not completely at a point where I would say it is ready for prime time.”
He is supportive of enhancing Memorial Park on the west side of the downtown campus and transforming it into a true commemoration of those who served in the armed forces.
The project became controversial, he said, because the “City Council didn’t bring the residents into the conversation early enough.” Save Boca came into being because “residents felt they were not part of the original plans.”
While he is not endorsing Save Boca’s contention that the city should back away from a public-private partnership with Terra/Frisbie, he does agree that the city has the financial strength to finance a new City Hall and Community Center on its own.
One of his main priorities is building more workforce housing so that people have access to affordable places to live. “Workforce housing is important to me,” he said.
He also supports “balanced” growth that maintains Boca’s character, strengthening police, fire and emergency services and improving transportation infrastructure.
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Larry Cellon has a formidable record of service to the city as a member of the Community Appearance Board for 27 years and the Planning and Zoning Board for 10 years.
He gained expertise in development and construction as a former partner with JMW Construction.
He is a founding member of Workshop 344+, formed by a group of influential residents who want to improve a five-block section of East Palmetto Park Road.
Frustrated because that effort hasn’t gained traction with city officials, he resigned from the planning board so he could run for a City Council seat.
While the city does many things very well, “the rub comes from development,” he said. “That is creating all the strife. I am uniquely positioned with my knowledge and experience in development to help guide the city forward in a reasonable and sustainable manner.”
Although he is not a member of Save Boca, he agrees with that group that the city does not need a developer partner to rebuild the City Hall and Community Center and make other improvements to the west side of the government campus.
The city already is willing to pay $175 million for a new police station, and will ask voters to approve financing it with a 30-year, tax-exempt general obligation bond in the March 10 election, he noted. Residents will pay for it through a tax increase.
And the city has purchased for $17.4 million a building that will house many City Hall functions, with a much smaller City Hall to be built on the government campus.
And yet the city is asking voters to approve spending $201 million up front for improvements to the west side of the government campus. It will take many years for the city to recoup that money from payments it will get from Terra/Frisbie for land it is leasing from the city on the campus’ east side, he said.
Taken together, Cellon argues that this makes no sense.
Cellon’s priorities are for the city to offer free wi-fi in the downtown, which he said other cities have done at minimal cost. He wants to install artificial reefs in Red Reef Park to protect the shoreline and to create a snorkel trail there.
He also wants the turtle rehabilitation program at Gumbo Limbo to be reinstated and the gift shop reopened. And like some of the other candidates, he wants to use artificial intelligence to control traffic lights and improve traffic flow.
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Save Boca member Stacy Sipple is a clinical oncology pharmacist who believes the current City Council is not listening to residents’ concerns about overdevelopment, increased traffic and reduction in open spaces.
“I have had enough,” she states in campaign literature, “and… I know I am in no way the minority.”
While not anti-development, she said, “I am pro-common sense.”
She agrees a new City Hall and Community Center are needed, but opposes the public-private partnership with Terra/Frisbie and the 99-year land lease.
“Who knows what is going to happen in 99 years,” she said. “That is a long time to sign a lease over to somebody.”
Rather, she would have the city improve the city’s downtown campus land on its own. “The area needs to be fixed up,” she said. “I think we can do it better on the city’s money. … Then we control the land.”
She wants more transparency and better communication with residents when development projects come before the city for approval. “A lot of residents are finding out after the fact that (a project) is already approved,” she said.
Traffic congestion is another problem that needs to be addressed, she said. “People are avoiding going downtown because of the traffic and the parking situation with having to pay at meters,” she said.
Sipple also thinks one city priority should be getting sustainable workforce housing. “A few CEOs can afford to live in this area, but the worker bees can’t afford to live here,” she said.
Sipple says in her campaign literature that she is not a politician, but is a “resident’s voice.”
“I am running to restore trust, preserve what makes Boca special, and ensure our community has a seat at THEIR table.”
Boca Raton city election
Election day: March 10
Last day to register to vote: Feb. 9
Last day to request mail-in ballot: Feb. 26
The mayor and council races are citywide for three-year terms, except the Council D race, which is for an unexpired one-year term.
Also on the ballot
Voters will decide two other issues:
Whether to approve moving forward with the proposed redevelopment of the city’s downtown campus.
Whether to approve the city’s issuing bonds of up to $175 million to build a new police headquarters, relocated from downtown to a site adjacent to the Spanish River Library.
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