News

By Jane Smith

    Six Boynton Beach residents will advise the city commissioners when they sit as the Community Redevelopment Agency board. The residents, appointed at the second commission meeting in December, are:
    • Linda Cross, a retired CPA.
    • James DeVoursney, a dermatologist.
    • Brian Edwards, a marketing and development worker.
    • Thomas Murphy Jr., a firefighter.
    • Robert Pollock, a Postal Service worker and Army retiree.
    • Christina Romelus, an adjunct professor and business owner.
    Commissioner Mike Fitzpatrick was not able to attend the meeting; he will appoint a seventh member at a future meeting.
    Ten residents had applied to be on the board, Mayor Jerry Taylor said. The remaining ones are: William Todd Jackson, insurance agency owner; Paula Melley, consultant; Genevieve Morris, retired quality assurance manager; and Edward Tedtmann, commercial/industrial real estate broker.
    The advisory board will make recommendations on programs, activities and financing issues to the CRA board. The CRA works to reduce blight in areas east of the interstate and along the Intracoastal Waterway in Boynton Beach.
    The advisory board was created in October after two community members — Buck Buchanan and Woodrow Hay — were ousted from their positions on CRA board.
    At the September CRA meeting, they had disagreed publicly with Vice Mayor Joe Casello and Commissioner Mack McCray over their low performance marks for the agency’s executive director, Vivian Brooks. “The problem is not with Vivian, not with the city manager and not with the staff. The problem lies with the leadership of the city,” Hay said at the Sept. 8 CRA meeting. “I really wish there was an evaluation for each of us by the city for the way we behave up here on the dais.”
    Commissioner David Merker missed the second September commission meeting, held on Rosh Hashanah. That’s when Casello proposed an all-commission CRA board. Commissioner Fitzpatrick voted no, but the motion carried because McCray and the mayor voted yes. At the Dec. 15 commission meeting, before nominating a resident to the advisory board, Merker said, “Buck Buchanan and Woodrow Hay were appointed, did nothing wrong. They should still be there.
    “What has happened is a charade. And you, the people who are out there, are not being respected.”