bonds - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T09:59:27Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/bondsElection results: Delray Beach bond questionshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/election-results-delray-beach-bond-questions2023-03-15T00:36:36.000Z2023-03-15T00:36:36.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}10997673865,RESIZE_1200x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}10997673865,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="710" alt="10997673865?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a>SOURCE: Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections (<em>unofficial results</em>)</p>
<div class="buttonGroup cf"> </div></div>Boca Raton: Beach-park district wants to cap payments to CRAhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-beach-park-district-wants-to-cap-payments-to-cra2023-02-01T16:10:22.000Z2023-02-01T16:10:22.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong></p>
<p>Still smarting over its financial obligations to the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District once again is seeking to control how much it must pay.<br />District commissioners unanimously voted on Jan. 3 to notify the city that they will hold a Feb. 21 public hearing when they are expected to vote on a resolution to cap payments so they do not exceed the $2.3 million owed this fiscal year.<br />“We are not trying to get out of the obligation. We are trying to cap it,” said Commissioner Robert Rollins Jr.<br />The CRA was created in 1980 to breathe new life into the then-moribund downtown. Its first major project was the development of Mizner Park.<br />A 1986 interlocal agreement between the district and city obligated the district to make payments for acquiring, operating and maintaining park and recreational facilities in the downtown.<br />It was amended in 1989 to allow the CRA to use the district payments to pay off $68 million in bonds that financed the Mizner Park project.<br />District officials last raised the payment issue in 2020 when they sought to stop making them altogether, saying the money would be better spent on improving the many parks it operates.<br />They contended that since the Mizner Park bonds were paid off in 2019, they should no longer be obligated to make the payments.<br />The City Council swatted down that request. “Obligations are obligations,” Mayor Scott Singer said at the time.<br />The district has revived the issue now as its annual payment has jumped from $1.4 million to $2.3 million and could increase further.<br />“Our contribution has gone up significantly,” Commissioner Craig Ehrnst said. “For us, it is a significant fee.”<br />In addition, in 2020 the CRA was expected to cease to exist in 2025. But over the last two years, City Council members have discussed possibly extending the CRA’s life, which would mean that the district’s obligation would live on.<br />District officials now acknowledge that they can’t simply stop paying the CRA, but say they are allowed under state law to cap future payments.<br />Assistant City Manager Chrissy Gibson said city officials will be better able to comment on the district’s request once they hear what is said and decided at the Feb. 21 public hearing.<br />But she noted that the city’s position remains that the state statute cited by the district applies only to CRAs created after 2006.<br />The district’s public hearing will be held in conjunction with its regular board meeting in its office at the Swim and Racquet Center, 21618 St. Andrews Blvd., at 5:15 p.m.<br /><strong>In other business</strong>, district commissioners reelected Erin Wright as chair, Rollins as vice chair and Ehrnst as secretary-treasurer for calendar year 2023.<br />And Briann Helms, the district’s executive director, said she will ask commissioners on Feb. 6 to approve a “soft opening” of Ocean Strand Park on State Road A1A with a ribbon-cutting to follow once signs are installed. The district is waiting for city approval to install the signs, she said.</p></div>Boynton Beach: Commissioners by 3-2 vote threaten to end deal with partner in Town Squarehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boynton-beach-commissioners-by-3-2-vote-threaten-to-end-deal-with2020-09-02T14:12:47.000Z2020-09-02T14:12:47.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong></p>
<p>Boynton Beach City Commissioners narrowly voted on Sept. 1 to direct city staff to see whether JKM Developers can fulfill its contract on Town Square construction or else end it.<br />John Markey, principal of JKM Developers, wanted until Sept. 15 to present an additional option — using the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency tax dollars to help underwrite the private portion of the project.<br />That pledged money would be used to finance two parking garages and three residential buildings with retail and restaurant space on the ground floor. In return, JKM promised a community benefits package of workforce housing, a rent-to-own program and a scholarship fund. <br />“It pains me to be in this position,” Commissioner Justin Katz said about taking a hard line with the city’s development partner. “I implore my colleagues to make a decision tonight and stop us from listing in the sea.”<br />Commissioner Christina Romelus was equally frustrated: “I’m at my wit’s end. I want to throw in the towel. This makes no sense to me.”<br />Katz, Romelus and Vice Mayor Ty Penserga felt the city already has given JKM too much.<br /> Commissioner Woodrow Hay and Mayor Steven Grant voted to hear another presentation in two weeks, with Grant saying: “It’s not our money. It belongs to the taxpayers in the CRA and the city. We haven’t had an opportunity to see the final solution.”<br />For its role in the partnership agreement, the city gave JKM 8.6 acres in the project area, $1.9 million in cash and new water and sewer lines and underground utilities at no cost. <br />“I walked into the meeting with my position firm,” Penserga said. “The idea of doubling down is not working for me. ... The current contract should be fulfilled or ended.”<br />Markey said the south garage, closest to the new City Hall/Library building, was not supposed to be finished until 18 months after the City Hall building received its certificate of occupancy. That just happened in July.<br />Commissioners first learned about the delay in the garages’ construction from Markey at their July 21 meeting. <br />The six-story south garage received a building permit on Sept. 5, 2019, and was supposed to be finished by June 5, 2021, Colin Groff, assistant city manager, said at the July 21 Town Square update. The south garage will not be finished in June as promised. In fact, the city would be lucky to get it financed early next year, Markey said July 21.<br />The north garage is estimated to be finished by Dec. 5, 2021.<br />Town Square is a private-public partnership between the city and its CRA and private developers. The 16.5-acre area, sitting between Boynton Beach Boulevard and Southeast Second Avenue, is supposed to give the city a downtown. <br />When complete, the $250 million Town Square will have a mix of municipal buildings and privately developed apartment buildings, a hotel, restaurants and shops. The city’s share is slightly more than $118 million.<br />Markey blamed the souring of the deal on how the bonds were financed.<br />“Your staff proposed that the bonds be issued by a Community Development District that they would create,” Markey said Sept. 1. <br />In 2018, city staff decided a nonprofit, based in Wisconsin, could issue the bonds faster than a Community Development District, Markey said Sept. 1. <br />Then, he said, Mark Hefferin of E2L Real Estate Solutions, Town Square’s lead developer, “comes to me and says we cannot underwrite the garages because a nonprofit issued the bonds.”<br />Markey’s recently hired attorney, Bonnie Miskel, asked for more time to allow Markey’s staff to prepare a third option. “It’s better for the partners and the city,” she said. <br />Hay was willing to give that time.<br /> “We are looking at something that will last a long time, decades even,” he said. “I would like to see his plan. Then, if it does not pan out, we can do what Katz suggested.”</p></div>Boca Raton: District asks out of Mizner payments to city to free money for parkshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-district-asks-out-of-mizner-payments-to-city-to-free-m2020-01-01T16:58:02.000Z2020-01-01T16:58:02.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Mary Hladky</strong></p>
<p>The Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District wants to stop making payments to the city to pay off a Mizner Park bond debt, and instead wants to redirect the money to park improvement projects.<br />The district asked the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency to relieve it of its payment obligations in a Sept. 20 letter, but did not receive a response, district attorney Jacob Horowitz said at a Dec. 16 meeting.<br />While district commissioners voted 4-0, with Commissioner Robert Rollins absent, to make a $1.4 million payment to the CRA for the 2019-20 fiscal year, they also agreed to send a second letter renewing their request to be exempted from making any more payments. That letter was delivered to the city on Dec. 23.<br />The City Council, whose members also sit as CRA commissioners, has the authority to exempt the district from making the payments, the most recent letter states.<br />If the City Council refuses, the district would seek legal advice on how to end the obligation, Executive Director Briann Harms said in an email.<br />The issue could become another bone of contention between the city and the district, which are now are at odds over how to build the Boca National golf course.<br />The CRA was created in the early 1980s to breathe new life into the then-moribund downtown. Its first major project was the development of Mizner Park, which replaced a failing mall and became an attractive downtown destination.<br />A 1986 interlocal agreement between the district and the city obligated the district to make payments for acquiring, operating and maintaining park and recreational facilities in the downtown. <br />The agreement was amended in 1989 to allow the CRA to use the district payments to pay off $68 million in bonds that financed the Mizner Park project. Mizner Park opened in 1991.<br />Since those bonds were paid off in March, it is an appropriate time to seek a new arrangement, the district said in the September and December letters. <br />The December letter includes two other reasons why the district should not have to make further payments.<br />Thirteen percent of the district’s tax revenue comes from residents living outside the city’s boundaries, but they have received no benefit from the payments to the CRA because they pay higher non-resident rates at recreation facilities located within the CRA, which encompasses Boca Raton’s downtown area.<br />The district is also strapped for money because, under pressure from the City Council, commissioners voted against raising the tax rate last year.<br />Exempting the district from making additional payments will “allow the district to utilize these funds in other ways that will continue to benefit the citizens and residents that we both serve,” the letter states.<br />City spokeswoman Chrissy Gibson said that the district’s request will be discussed at a Jan. 23 joint meeting between City Council members and district commissioners. The matter also could come up at the Jan. 13 City Council meeting.<br /><strong>In other business:</strong><br />• Commissioners voted 4-0 to approve an employment agreement with Harms, who became executive director in October after serving as interim executive director since February.<br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960915485,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960915485,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" alt="7960915485?profile=original" /></a>Harms replaces veteran district official Art Koski, who was reassigned to be construction manager of the Boca National public golf course one year ago. He also served as a consultant until the commission ended his contract in October. <br />Harms’ annual base salary is $105,000, with a 3% cost-of- living adjustment taking effect on Jan. 1. Her monthly car allowance is $500. Her salary cannot exceed $150,000.<br />Her compensation is below the $120,000 Koski earned as executive director at the time he was reassigned.<br />“I want to thank you all for your support over the last year,” Harms said as she was applauded by commissioners and the audience.<br />“I think she has done a very good job,” District Chair Susan Vogelgesang said after the meeting. “She is very thorough.”<br />• Commissioners also voted 4-0 to approve rules governing how district meetings are conducted, similar to rules other elected bodies have.<br />The rules include a public decorum policy, first proposed by Commissioner Steven Engel in October, that govern conduct by commissioners and members of the pubic attending district meetings.<br />Engel said he decided rules were needed after a heated conversation between District Vice Chair Erin Wright and Koski in July, but his decision was reinforced by behavior of an audience member during and after a November meeting in which a commissioner felt threatened.<br />That incident has prompted commissioners to have a police presence at some of their meetings.<br />The policy states that members of the public and commissioners shall treat each other with courtesy and refrain from “rude and derogatory remarks, reflection as to integrity, abusive comments, and statements as to motives and personalities.”<br />Anyone who disrupts a meeting and does not heed a warning to stop will be removed by a police officer and is subject to arrest.</p></div>Lantana: Savings wrought by new manager result in raiseshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/lantana-savings-wrought-by-new-manager-result-in-raises2012-11-29T15:53:43.000Z2012-11-29T15:53:43.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><strong>By Mary Thurwachter</strong><br /> <br />Taxpayers in Lantana will save about $1 million over the next nine years because the town is refinancing its water and sewer bonds.<br /> At its Nov. 26 meeting, the Town Council agreed to refinance the bonds with TD Bank for a principal amount not to exceed $4.5 million.<br /> In 1998, a $9.215 million bond was issued with a 3.6 percent interest rate and had risen to 4.65 percent. The refinanced rate will charge an annual interest of 1.48 percent. The bonds will mature in October 2021.<br /> Council members praised Town Manager Deborah Manzo, who was up for her annual evaluation during the same meeting, for ferreting out the savings, one of many ways she has found to cut costs since she was hired in April. <br /> Among her cost-saving achievements, according to Mayor Dave Stewart, Manzo restructured the lifeguard staffing, reduced a vacant police officer position from full-time to 30 hours, and is currently analyzing the town’s garbage and trash programs, anticipating savings of $50,000.<br /> Manzo also found a way to give city employees a 2.5 percent cost-of-living adjustment. They hadn’t received merit raises since 2007.<br /> After taking turns praising her good work, the council voted to raise Manzo’s salary to $112,000 a year. Stewart had suggested a salary in the $108,000 to $112,000 range. <br /> Hired six months ago, Manzo stepped into former Town Manager Mike Bornstein’s $97,476 annual salary — about $20,000 less than she made as assistant city manager in Greenacres. <br /> Council member Lynn Moorhouse said Manzo’s cost savings measures had paid for her raises for five years or more. <br /> “I love her team attitude,” council member Phil Aridas said. “She brought a breath of fresh air to this town.”<br /> Council member Tom Deringer said Manzo had done “so much for the town, she deserved a raise of at least 10 percent.”<br /> The new salary is more in keeping with what managers make in comparable municipalities, Stewart said. <br /> Bornstein, who took a job as Lake Worth’s manager in April, had turned down pay increases in Lantana and actually reduced his salary during tight budget years, Stewart said. “If Mike got his reductions back and his 2 percent increases, we’d be in the range.”<br /> Manzo said she was surprised and pleased with the vote of confidence — and raise — she received. <br /> Her future pay increases aren’t likely to take such a large leap.<br /> Next year, whatever raise employees get, she will get, Stewart said. <br /><br /></p></div>