Related election information
Mayor's Race: Trio running for mayor includes two council incumbents | Mayoral candidate profiles (Nachlas, Thomson, Liebelson)
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: Ex-county mayor battles city board stalwart, Save Boca member | Council Seat D candidate profiles (Cellon, Sipple, Weinroth)
12 candidates vying for mayor and three other seats on dais
By Mary Hladky
With so much at stake, Boca Raton’s March 10 election has outsized significance.
For starters, voters will be choosing a new mayor, who will replace term-limited Scott Singer, and three of the four City Council seats are up for grabs.
That alone imbues the election with importance. But magnifying the impact is that voters will be asked to decide if the city can redevelop a portion of the 31.7-acre downtown campus in partnership with developers Terra and Frisbie Group.
A “yes” vote will clear the way for the project to move forward, preserving recreation and green space on the west side of the campus and adding residential units and office and hotel buildings on the east side.
If the vote is “no,” more than a year of planning and preparation will crumble to dust and city leaders will confront decisions on how, at the very least, they will replace the old and dilapidated City Hall and Community Center and improve outdated recreation facilities on the west side.
Voters also will determine if a new police headquarters can be built on city-owned land on Spanish River Boulevard east of the city library, replacing the old and inadequate headquarters across the street from the current City Hall.
They will be asked whether to approve a $175 million bond issue to finance the construction. Residents would pay for it through a property tax increase that would end when the bond is paid off.
Beyond all that, voters are experiencing unprecedented political activism by Save Boca, the residents’ group that opposes the downtown campus redevelopment plans.
Save Boca wants to seize control of the City Council, fielding a slate of three council candidates that could become a council majority.
They are Michelle Grau for Seat A, Save Boca founder Jon Pearlman for Seat B and Stacy Sipple for Seat D. All have vowed not to take campaign contributions from developers.
The mayor’s race is impacted as well. Candidate Mike Liebelson is not a Save Boca member but strongly supports the group. He is running against two current council members, Fran Nachlas and Andy Thomson.
Nachlas, now deputy mayor, supports the downtown campus redevelopment with Terra/Frisbie, while Thomson is strongly opposed.
Nachlas and Thomson have raised an astonishing amount of money for their campaigns and are running almost neck-and-neck in fundraising.
The most recent financial reports at the end of December showed Nachlas with $473,000 in contributions and Thomson with $407,000. Nachlas loaned her campaign $100,000.
Liebelson is almost entirely self-financing his campaign with a $50,000 loan and a $5,000 donation.
With Nachlas and Thomson locked in the battle to become mayor, Council member Marc Wigder is the only incumbent seeking reelection to the seat he now holds.
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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