By John Pacenti
Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney has certainly been a summer pugilist.
He took on the police union over its contract demands in June, his fellow commissioners over the budget in July, and then the city’s Downtown Development Authority in August.
The latest battle hasn’t been pretty. Carney has weathered criticism from some commissioners, and the DDA has gone on the offensive, promoting its work and pushing back on the mayor.
The mayor has tangled with DDA Executive Director Laura Simon and sparred with its chair, Dr. Alan Costilo, owner of Big Al’s Steaks on Atlantic Avenue.
“I’m fighting for the taxpayers. Taxpayers, that’s who I work for. I don’t work for the staff. I don’t work for you. I don’t work for the press,” Carney told The Coastal Star. “I work for the taxpayers.”
The DDA consented to an internal audit, with a report that could be coming in September, after a furious back-and-forth with Carney at the commission’s Aug. 19 meeting.
“Bring it on,” Simon said at the meeting.
Director put on the spot
Delray Beach’s downtown — a vital economic engine for the city — is one of the trendiest business districts in Florida, a must-see on many South Florida tourists’ and foodies’ lists. The DDA is the body that helps make it all happen.
The DDA has an operating budget a bit north of $2 million that comes from taxes paid by downtown property owners. It puts on events, such as Savor the Avenue, Fashion Week, Art & Jazz on the Avenue, and Restaurant Month. It also funds the downtown safety ambassadors program and the beachside Visitor Information Center, among other things.
It is asking for an additional $800,000 to run Old School Square for the upcoming fiscal year, a burden that it agreed to take on in 2022 after the city kicked out the the nonprofit that was the square’s longtime operator. It runs the Cornell Art Museum, the amphitheater and the vintage gym.
Carney started criticizing the DDA during Simon’s presentation on Old School Square for the 2025-26 budget at the Aug. 19 commission meeting. “I’d like to know why the administrative costs are at 66% of your operating budget,” he said.
Carney asked why the DDA budget went up 100% in five years and said Simon was “disingenuous” by producing budget numbers for the Creative Arts School — run by the city in the Crest Theatre on the Old School Square campus — that were knowingly inaccurate.
Simon has criticized the art school’s plans to take storage space for the amphitheater from the authority for a new pottery studio.
When Simon said she was there just for the Old School Square presentation, not to answer questions about the DDA’s general budget, Carney retorted, “I’m talking about Old School Square, too, because I happen to think that before we give you another $700,000, $800,000, $900,000 — whatever you are asking for — that we should have our auditor make sure how you’re spending the taxpayers’ dollars.”
When Carney said there was a lack of receipts for expenditures by the DDA, Commissioner Juli Casale chimed in, saying, “Can she [Simon] explain that? You’re making serious accusations at their meetings, and here.”
Stress with mayor on board
Simon at one point said, “We don’t have to be here. We could give the keys back, if that’s what you guys want,” drawing murmurs from the crowd.
Carney isn’t concerned about Simon’s threat to walk away from Old School Square. “I think the city can run it. I think there needs to be a transition period, but the city can run it. The city ran it before,” he told The Coastal Star.
Also, the Creative Arts School shows the city can successfully program for that space, Carney said.
Commissioner Tom Markert, who was effusive in his praise of the DDA, appeared furious with the mayor when Carney said his inquiry wasn’t personal. “This is the most personal thing I’ve seen,” Markert said.
The clash had been brewing for over a month, ever since Carney found a measure in the DDA’s charter that allowed him to sit as a non-voting member on its board, whose members are appointed by the City Commission. He then peppered the DDA with questions about its books from holiday dinners and whether taxpayer money was going to private events.
Carney also made a public records request to see all of the DDA’s financials and repeatedly said he was not happy that Simon wanted to meet with him one-on-one, rather than provide the documentation.
Then Costilo — the DDA’s chair — reached out to Simon by e-mail, concerned that now that the mayor was sitting as a member of the DDA’s board, that he was violating state law by talking to other board members outside of meetings.
Carney then sent Costilo a cease-and-desist letter on Aug. 13, saying he was defamed. He demanded that Costilo issue a formal apology.
Costilo refused and then asked the board to consider changing its charter at its Aug. 18 meeting so the mayor can no longer sit as an ex officio member.
“It’s a little uncomfortable to be forced to have somebody sit on your board,” Costilo said. “I think it would be best to allow him to speak anytime he wants, which we’ve always entertained.”
As for the mayor’s cease-and-desist letter, Costilo said, “I don’t think he likes me much.”
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