Shoeman
By Tim O’Meilia
Briny Breezes last month hired its third deputy town clerk in 15 months following the forced resignation of Cindy Corum after nine months on the job.
Town Clerk pro tem Nancy Boczon, also an alderman, promised Corum the $2,500 in severance pay called for in her contract if she resigned her part-time position immediately without forcing a vote of the Town Council.
“We had great disharmony in the building,” Boczon said after the Sept. 27 Town Council meeting, saying several talks with Corum did not improve the atmosphere. She declined to elaborate.
Town Attorney Jerome Skrandel said Corum’s discussion with at least one audit firm in the running for a three-year contract with the town has forced Briny Breezes to restart the entire process.
“She overstepped her bounds,” Skrandel said. “We’re being very prudent to make sure we’re operating properly. This way we have no harm, no foul.”
In an email to Mayor Roger Bennett, Corum said she told the town’s current auditor, Alberni Caballero and Co. of Coral Gables, that the council was seeking a reduction in the $11,000 annual fee the town was paying. She said the conversation occurred before the town decided to seek proposals. She said she was trying to save the town money.
The town has received four proposals but has not opened the fee bids. Skrandel said they will be returned unopened to the firms.
Skrandel proposed a new evaluation scorecard for the three-member audit committee to grade the proposals, adding a category for fees which was not in the previous evaluation sheet.
In her email, Corum said Boczon micromanaged her work and she was discouraged from communicating with the newly contracted town bookkeeper. Previous deputy clerks handled the bookkeeping.
Lesa Shoeman, the daughter of bookkeeper Linda Harvel, was hired by Boczon to replace Corum on an interim basis. Her contract is expected to be approved by the council in October.
Boczon said Shoeman was one of two applicants who responded to a notice of the vacancy in a municipal clerks publication.
Shoeman, 39, said she is a bookkeeper and payroll manager for several small businesses and previously ran a bookkeeping business in Palm Beach Gardens.
“This position is really ideal for me,” she said of the two-day per week job. “With my two kids, I don’t want to work 40 hours a week.”
Although she lacks experience as a town clerk, Shoeman said she would pursue certification as a municipal clerk. Corum was previously town clerk in Loxahatchee Groves and her predecessor left to take a full-time town clerk position in Lake Park.
In other business, the council approved a tax rate of $10 per each $1,000 of taxable property value, the maximum allowed by state law, by a 5-1 vote. Alderman Sue Thaler dissented. The council unanimously approved a $599,445 budget that is $1,720 less than this year’s, despite a 4 percent hike in the cost of fire-rescue service and a 5 percent increase in water and utility service, both provided through contracts with the city of Boynton Beach. Ú
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