resolution - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T10:02:44Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/resolutionBoca Raton: Council denounces racism and bigotry, settles new members into their positionshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-council-denounces-racism-and-bigotry-settles-new-membe2023-05-03T15:53:43.000Z2023-05-03T15:53:43.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}11063036272,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}11063036272,RESIZE_710x{{/staticFileLink}}" width="668" alt="11063036272?profile=RESIZE_710x" /></a></p>
<p>City Council members on April 11 unanimously adopted a resolution that denounces and condemns all types of racism and bigotry, including an “alarming” rise in antisemitism.</p>
<p>The resolution was requested by Mayor Scott Singer, who is Jewish. He cited a March report by the Anti-Defamation League that said 3,697 incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism targeting Jews were reported to the ADL in 2022, the highest number of antisemitic incidents since the league began tracking them in 1979 and a 36% increase from 2021.</p>
<p>As of last year, more than 1,000 governments across the country, including those of Florida and 29 other states, had passed similar resolutions, he said.</p>
<p>“It was important to lend our voice here, particularly as we see antisemitism coming closer to home,” Singer said. “It is always a great opportunity to decry bigotry and hate.”</p>
<p>Antisemitic flyers have been thrown on driveways in Boca Raton several times in the last year.</p>
<p>Singer’s fellow council members all spoke in favor of the resolution, as did Lisa Beers, president of the American Jewish Committee board of directors.</p>
<p>“Thank you for standing up for antisemitism,” she said.</p>
<p>During a March 31 organizational meeting after Singer, Fran Nachlas and Marc Wigder won council terms without opposition, council members unanimously agreed on how to divvy up responsibilities.</p>
<p>Monica Mayotte was chosen as deputy mayor, replacing Andrea O’Rourke, who was term limited from seeking office again.</p>
<p>Wigder is now chair of the Community Redevelopment Agency and Nachlas is vice chair.</p>
<p>Yvette Drucker and Nachlas are the council’s representatives on the county Transportation Planning Agency and Drucker is the city’s delegate to the Palm Beach County League of Cities. </p>
<p style="text-align:right;"><em>— Mary Hladky</em></p></div>Gulf Stream: Orthwein earns accolades for 25 years of servicehttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/gulf-stream-orthwein-earns-accolades-for-25-years-of-service2020-12-02T17:12:00.000Z2020-12-02T17:12:00.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett </strong></p>
<p>Gulf Stream resident Joan Orthwein first took a seat on the Town Commission May 4, 1995.<br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}8241305281,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}8241305281,RESIZE_400x{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="8241305281?profile=RESIZE_400x" width="207" /></a>Last month the Florida League of Cities officially praised her for 25 years of “unselfish leadership.”<br /> In a resolution, the league’s board of directors noted that allowing multiple terms in office is the highest compliment voters can give to an elected official. <br /> “The league thanks you for your commitment to public service and for the greater good of Florida’s citizens,” it said in a video presentation on Nov. 13.<br /> Mayor Scott Morgan added a local touch. <br /> “It is her intellect, her honesty, her integrity, her sense of humor that has helped lead Gulf Stream forward through those 25 years on this commission and making this town really one of character and ability that is unique in the state of Florida,” Morgan said.<br /> Orthwein was surprised by the recognition, a late addition to the commission’s agenda.<br /> “Oh my goodness. I don’t know what to say, but thank you,” she said. “It’s an honor to be on the commission. … It’s an honor to be here.”<br /> The league named its honor the Mayor John Land Years of Service Award. Land was the mayor of Apopka for more than 60 years. <br /> The league also presented Orthwein with a 25-year pin to wear. <br /> Morgan said praise of Orthwein for a quarter-century of service was understating her efforts.<br /> “Joan’s legacy is not just 25 years. It’s actually 32. She served seven years on the ARPB, was the chairman of that board before she moved on to the commission,” Morgan said.<br /> In other business, Police Chief Edward Allen reported that two cars were stolen from residents in October and a third was burglarized. Both stolen cars were unlocked and had the keys inside, he said. One was recovered. The town is fighting a rash of stolen vehicles this year. <br /> Allen also introduced Gulf Stream’s 13th police officer, Justin Menard, a 25-year veteran of the Florida Highway Patrol.<br /> The additional officer position was planned to expand police coverage in town, but Allen said another officer resigned a week after Menard started.</p></div>Art unveiling: Mayfair House, South Palm Beach – Feb. 24https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/art-unveiling-mayfair-house-south-palm-beach-feb-242017-03-01T18:46:28.000Z2017-03-01T18:46:28.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960712488,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960712488,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960712488?profile=original" /></a><em>Penny Davidson, known around South Palm Beach as the town’s unofficial artist-in-residence,</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>unveiled her latest mosaic on Feb. 24. Davidson has created dozens of public art pieces</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>installed throughout the town over the years and says this one depicts ‘the warmth and friendliness</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>of our wonderful town.’ The Town Council honored her with a resolution recognizing her contributions on Feb. 28.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Dan Moffett/The Coastal Star</strong></p></div>Delray Beach: City resolves to support tighter controls on painkillershttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/delray-beach-city-resolves-to-support-tighter-controls-on-painkil2016-11-02T16:56:31.000Z2016-11-02T16:56:31.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Jane Smith</strong><br /> <br /> The City Commission passed a resolution Nov. 1 supporting federal agencies to put tighter controls on prescription painkillers. <br /> The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Justice are asking the states to do more monitoring of the prescribing of narcotics such as oxycodone, which often lead to heroin addiction. <br /> Delray Beach has seen nearly triple the number of overdoses this year as of Oct. 31, compared with all of 2015. In October, Delray Beach police responded to 99 heroin overdoses, resulting in 11 deaths. Both are all-time records for the city.<br /> The city also played a leading role in recent arrests in a patient-brokering case. Detective Nicole Lucas is the city’s representative on the law enforcement subgroup of the State Attorney’s Sober Homes Task Force, started in July.<br /> One of Lucas’ sources told her about a Boynton Beach treatment center. The Whole Life Recovery center’s owner, James Kigar, and manager, Christopher Hutson, are accused of illegally paying sober home operators “case management fees” weekly for every insurable patient brought to them without the patient’s visiting the center. <br /> Kigar and Hutson were arrested Oct. 25. They were released the next morning after posting a $3,000 bond each and have a trial date of April 28. <br /> The state attorney said the investigation is ongoing.</p></div>Boca Raton: House party parents escape convictionhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/boca-raton-house-party-parents2011-06-29T19:10:48.000Z2011-06-29T19:10:48.000ZMary Kate Leminghttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/MaryKateLeming769<div>By Steve Plunkett
<p> The parents charged with hosting an “open house party” crashed by hundreds of beer-toting high school students in the gated Sanctuary enclave ended their day in court with adjudication withheld.</p>
<p> Shlomo and Jeannie Rasabi, who pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge, will not have a conviction on their records. Judge Barry M. Cohen assessed court costs of $253 each but no jail time or fine.</p>
<p> “Good luck to you both,” Cohen said after sentencing them June 20.</p>
<p> Violations of the state’s “open house party” law carry a penalty of up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. But a pre-sentence investigation said at worst, the Rasabis should be given six months probation, ordered to serve on a victim impact panel, work 100 community service hours and give 12 lectures on teen alcohol use.</p>
<p> Cohen said he did not want to clog the probation system with NORPs, meaning “normal, ordinary responsible persons.” He said the Rasabis did not purchase, arrange for or have prior knowledge of alcohol at the Oct. 10 party. He also noted that the pre-sentence report said the Rasabis had already suffered.</p>
<p> “The economic costs resulting from this incident to the couple has been great, and the publicity generated by the media has cost them dearly in terms of stress and difficulty with the children’s school and parents of children at American Heritage,” the report said, referring to the private school in Plantation where the Rasabis’ two sons attended.</p>
<p> The report included an example of hate mail the Rasabis received that Cohen read in court. “You are also perfectly behaving in a manner Boca Jews can only conduct themselves — selfish and arrogant,” the letter said.</p>
<p> After the sentencing Jeannie Rasabi said their sons’ classmates marveled at the home in the Sanctuary they were borrowing for the after-homecoming event. They found pictures online of the 17,000-square-foot house, which is unfurnished and for sale, and said, “Ooh, we have to go to this party,” Rasabi said.</p>
<p> “Obviously we care about teen, underage drinking,’’ Jeannie Rasabi said. “We never suspected they’d be intoxicated in our home.”</p>
<p> Media coverage was intense. “No shelter at The Sanctuary for liquored up American Heritage pupils,” <i>The</i> <i>Palm Beach Post</i> blogged. “Son held drunken party for 600 friends after banishing parents to bedroom of their multi-million-dollar mansion,” England’s <i>Daily Mail</i> reported online.</p>
<p> Shlomo Rasabi, who lives with his family in Plantation, is the property manager of the house and asked its owner for permission to hold the party. He and his wife also hired four men to help chaperone the event and told the Sanctuary’s homeowner association and security service about it, they told the pre-sentence investigator. They expected about 100 guests to arrive in two chartered buses, but at least 500 teenagers in four buses arrived, the pre-sentence report said. They quickly asked security to call the police, it said.</p>
<p> The Rasabis disputed a police report that said they stayed “in their bedroom” during the party, “which is understandable in light of the fact that the house was unfurnished,” the pre-sentence report said. Instead, Shlomo Rasabi stationed himself on a rear balcony and Jeannie Rasabi kept near the swimming pool because they worried someone might drown, the report said.</p>
<p> They also complained that when Boca Raton officers took them to the police station, they left 26 teens at the house with no adult supervision and also left the alcohol there, the report said.</p>
<p> “They said , ‘It’s OK, we have pictures [for evidence],’ ” Jeannie Rasabi said after the court hearing.</p>
<p> The Rasabis’ older son graduated from American Heritage in May with high honors, but they could not keep their younger son there “because of the financial burden associated with defending themselves,” the pre-sentence report said. Neither boy was found to be drinking at the party, Rasabi attorney Adam Harmelin said.</p>
<p> Paul and Ingrid Paolino, the parents charged the following weekend with hosting a similar though much smaller party on Spanish River Road, also had adjudication withheld and paid $253 each in court costs. But their case was resolved by a plea deal in May, just hours before their attorney was prepared to argue that police searched their property without a warrant.</p>
<p> Jeannie Rasabi was surprised to hear the other couple was not punished more severely, saying the Paolinos admitted knowing their underage guests were drinking. But Rasabi said she and her husband could not have accused police of making an illegal search.</p>
<p> “We let them in,” Jeannie Rasabi said. “We wanted help.”</p>
<p> </p></div>