News

By Jane Smith
    
    Two Boynton Beach residents, recently ousted from the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency board, spoke against creating a citizen advisory board to the CRA. At the Oct. 20 City Commission meeting, James “Buck” Buchanan and former Mayor Woodrow Hay advised the city commissioners not to go forward with the plans.
    Buchanan read his letter into the record: “The formation of the citizens’ CRA advisory board would incur expenses such as CRA staff time, a court reporter at the meetings and training in Sunshine Law, tax increment funding, etc. To justify these costs, it is necessary to determine how effective the advisory board would be in working with the commission.”
    He said commissioners were not listening to the people, who wanted independent citizens on the board. He ended, “A fluff advisory board does not begin to replace voting positions that have real impact on the course of the CRA.”
    Hay said he agreed with Buchanan “110 percent.” Hay explained the Florida Statutes section on governing bodies sitting as the CRA board.
    “I want you to understand that you don’t have any higher responsibility than the citizens serving on the board. Everyone is equal on that CRA board,” he said. “We all have one vote.”
    Three others said the guidelines for the advisory board members were vague.
    But the commission OK’d the creation of the CRA advisory board by a 4-1 vote. Commissioner David Merker voted no because he wanted two citizens on the board. City Commissioner Mike Fitzpatrick, who voted against removing Buchanan and Hay, voted for the citizen advisory board. He said, “I’ll give it a shot.”