robert ganger - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T10:16:39Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/robert+gangerGulf Stream: Town authorizes lawyers to defend ex-vice mayorhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/gulf-stream-town-authorizes-lawyers-to-defend-ex-vice-mayor2018-01-31T19:09:46.000Z2018-01-31T19:09:46.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong></p>
<p>Outside lawyers for the town are representing Robert Ganger in a public records lawsuit seeking private emails and text messages he sent and received while he was vice mayor.<br /> Resident Martin O’Boyle and his StopDirtyGovernment LLC want Gulf Stream to turn over all communications and public records Ganger had from Nov. 1, 2012, through Feb. 7, 2014. <br /> Trey Nazzaro, the town’s staff attorney, told commissioners Jan. 12 that O’Boyle’s lawyers had subpoenaed Ganger for a deposition. Commissioners quickly approved the expense.<br /> “Bob Ganger has devoted himself to this town selflessly for decades,” Mayor Scott Morgan said.<br /> Ganger suffered a stroke in April 2016; he resigned from the commission three months later.<br /> “Since that stroke he has in my opinion been harassed, and I don’t use that word loosely, he has been harassed by Mr. O’Boyle,” Morgan said.<br /> In October 2016, Ganger asked the town to pay part of the legal bills he faced fighting a deposition O’Boyle scheduled shortly after his stroke. He later withdrew the request for fear that it would open him to more public records requests.<br /> In July, Ganger sat through a nearly two-hour deposition in a slander lawsuit O’Boyle filed against another of the town’s attorneys. O’Boyle dropped the slander claim in November.<br /> O’Boyle disputed Morgan’s characterization of the litigation as harassment.<br /> “The town did not produce the emails and we filed suit. Although years have passed, we are still coming across documents that haven’t been produced. In my mind, they were (and still are) playing ‘hide the ball,’ ” O’Boyle said in an email.<br /> Meanwhile, the public records war between the town and O’Boyle raged on; a proposed settlement was withdrawn from the Jan. 12 agenda. O’Boyle had sent two emails to Town Clerk Rita Taylor saying the settlement offer, which he signed in November, was now “invalid” and “not … on the table.”<br /> The proposal would have dismissed nine of 11 court cases between him and Gulf Stream. A lawsuit over police radio transmissions that an appellate court recently upheld in O’Boyle’s favor was excluded, as was the lawsuit seeking Ganger’s emails.<br /> Morgan, who has negotiated with O’Boyle for months, said the proposal left out certain litigation by the nonprofit Citizens Awareness Foundation Inc. and would have limited legal challenges the town could make.<br /> “I was not inclined to approve it anyway,” he said. <br /> The Florida Division of Corporations dissolved CAFI in September after it failed to file an annual report; until then top O’Boyle aide Brenda Russell handled its paperwork using the same address as O’Boyle’s Commerce Group Inc.<br /> In related actions, the 4th District Court of Appeal changed its Nov. 2 opinion awarding appellate attorney’s fees to O’Boyle in the police records case. His attorneys can claim only the fees authorized by the state’s Public Records Act and not extra fees as a sanction against the town, the court said.<br /> O’Boyle’s lawyers have filed documents with the Circuit Court seeking more than $575,000. The town argues they should get perhaps $20,000 because most of their work was done after Gulf Stream gave O’Boyle the records. A hearing to determine the amount due has not been scheduled.<br /> Also, O’Boyle’s attorneys appealed a County Court decision that found the town did not violate the Public Records Act by providing O’Boyle a redacted copy of a bill from one of its attorneys.<br /> Starting in August 2013, O’Boyle and Place Au Soleil resident Chris O’Hare flooded Gulf Stream with requests for public records. In the following six months, the town received more than 700 requests, court documents show.<br /> In July 2013, before the current war began, Gulf Stream paid O’Boyle $180,000 to settle 16 lawsuits and about 400 requests for public records he filed after he was denied variances for work at his home on Hidden Harbour Drive.<br /> The town and O’Hare agreed in June to dismiss 36 lawsuits and appeals between them and withdraw all pending requests for records. Neither side paid the other’s legal bills.</p></div>Along the Coast: Towns urged to budget funds to revive fire studyhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/along-the-coast-towns-urged-to-budget-funds-to-revive-fire-study2017-06-28T16:47:44.000Z2017-06-28T16:47:44.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong><br /><br /> The barrier island-based Florida Coalition for Preservation wants Gulf Stream and its neighbors to budget money this summer to determine where to locate a new fire-rescue station and how much it would cost.<br /> “It’s important for you to understand that when you see your first budget … that we at least identify a possibility that we’ll be asking for some money from each of the towns on the barrier island,” said former Gulf Stream Vice Mayor Robert Ganger, who founded the coalition.<br /> The study would be a follow-up to an exploratory study that seemed to scuttle the idea of forming a unified fire-rescue department for Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes and Gulf Stream.<br /> “If we don’t start now, you’ll never be ready when Boynton in particular is redeveloped and there is a real problem getting over the bridges,” Ganger told Gulf Stream commissioners at their June 9 meeting.<br /> Mayor Scott Morgan asked how the proposed study would differ from last year’s effort. Ganger said the earlier study identified the cost of putting a facility on the barrier island and the possibility of two locations, but it was “all just speculative.”<br /> “Now we’ve got to get down to the real nitty-gritty and determine whether or not it’s run by Boynton Beach — which is probable, certainly possible — and where it would be located,” Ganger said.<br /> New Town Manager Greg Dunham said he would give commissioners their first look at his 2018 budget proposal July 14.<br /> Ganger said he hoped commissioners would set aside a “material” amount for the fire study, $15,000 to $20,000.<br /> “But don’t quote me on that because I literally do not know,” he said.<br /> Kristine de Haseth, the coalition’s executive director, warned commissioners in May that development in Boynton Beach on Woolbright Road and Ocean Avenue could impede emergency medical service access to the island.<br /> Ganger explained: “We are planning to talk to all the town managers and see their level of interest, their commitment to participate financially in a study, which at this point in time we haven’t really figured out what the study’s going to be.” <br /> Ganger said his group has talked to Bethesda Memorial Hospital, “and they’re very interested in what we’re trying to do.” The proposed station may turn out to be “non-civic, may be Bethesda, but you just don’t know,” he said. “You’ve got to do the work.”</p></div>Judge James R. Knott Award: Historic Courtroom, West Palm Beach – April 25https://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/judge-james-r-knott-award-historic-courtroom-west-palm-beach-apri2017-05-03T15:44:34.000Z2017-05-03T15:44:34.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960723862,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960723862,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="7960723862?profile=original" /></a><em>Robert Ganger holds his Judge James R. Knott Historical Contribution Award,</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>flanked by J. Grier Pressly III (left), chairman of the board of the Historical Society</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><em>of Palm Beach County, and Harvey Oyer III.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Photo provided by Capehart Photography</strong></p>
<p style="text-align:left;"><br /><br /> Robert Ganger, a vice chairman of the board of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, won the group’s Judge James R. Knott Historical Contribution Award, its highest honor, for his help in securing the endorsement of government officials and raising $9 million to restore the 1916 Palm Beach County Courthouse.<br /> Ganger, of Gulf Stream, helped persuade the County Commission to not tear down the historic courthouse and worked to negotiate a lease for the society to use the building. “This was the most pivotal, challenging, exhilarating and scary time in this institution’s long history, and Bob was one of the steady hands on the tiller during the bumpy ride,” said Harvey Oyer III, who nominated Ganger and presented the award April 25.<br /><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960724269,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960724269,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" width="96" alt="7960724269?profile=original" /></a> The Knott award, for contributing to the preservation, promotion or enrichment of county history, is named for a judge who was president of the historical society from 1957 to 1969 and wrote historical vignettes for The Palm Beach Post from 1977 to 1985.<br /> Oyer’s sister, Susan Oyer of Boynton Beach, was given the society’s Fannie James Pioneering Award for her efforts as president of the Lake Worth Pioneers’ Association Inc. to keep alive the memories and spirit of the county’s earliest pioneers.<br /> In May, the association will hold its 123rd annual meeting, where stories are passed on to younger generations. James, an African-American pioneer, was the first postmistress of the Jewell Post Office (now Lake Worth), from 1889 to 1903.</p></div>Gulf Stream: Sidelined by stroke, Ganger asks for help with legal feeshttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/gulf-stream-sidelined-by-stroke-ganger-asks-for-help-with-legal-f2016-11-02T16:58:39.000Z2016-11-02T16:58:39.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Steve Plunkett</strong><br /><br /> Former Vice Mayor Robert Ganger wants the town to pay $2,355 he spent fighting a deposition in a Martin O’Boyle lawsuit against Gulf Stream.<br /> The amount requested by Ganger, who is recuperating from a stroke that forced him to quit his commission seat in July, is less than a third of what his lawyer charged, said Kristine de Haseth, executive director of the Florida Coalition for Preservation, which Ganger co-founded. “His doctor was very firm in his opinion that Mr. Ganger could not be deposed as part of this frivolous lawsuit,” de Haseth said.<br /> Commissioner Joan Orthwein said she had no objection to paying the legal fees. “I think it’s very sad that he had to go out and find a personal attorney to defend himself,” Orthwein said.<br /> Ganger’s total bill to obtain a protective order from being deposed was around $12,000, but de Haseth said she negotiated with his lawyer to get the bill closer to $7,500.<br /> She urged town commissioners to approve the request for $2,355 “not only as a vote of confidence for Mr. Ganger and all the years that he served, but hopefully that you’ll never be in this position also.”<br /> Resident O’Boyle has filed dozens of lawsuits against Gulf Stream over the last four years and made thousands of requests for public records. <br /> Commissioners decided to postpone the matter until their next meeting, which they rescheduled from Nov. 11 to Nov. 10 to avoid the Veterans Day holiday.</p></div>Gulf Stream: Lyons to replace Ganger on town commissionhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/gulf-stream-lyons-to-replace-ganger-on-town-commission2016-08-31T16:06:20.000Z2016-08-31T16:06:20.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p><strong>By Dan Moffett</strong><br /><br /> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960671488,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-left" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960671488,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="95" alt="7960671488?profile=original" /></a><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960671681,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960671681,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="96" alt="7960671681?profile=original" /></a>Gulf Stream town commissioners turned to their Architectural Review and Planning Board to find a replacement for Robert Ganger, who vacated his commission seat in July because of health reasons.<br /> They unanimously appointed Paul Lyons, the ARPB chairman, to fill the void until next March’s election, citing his familiarity with town issues and his commitment to service.<br /> “The ARPB is the source of experience for someone coming onto the commission,” said Mayor Scott Morgan, who nominated Lyons during the Aug. 12 town meeting. “He’s dealing with issues we deal with — design, preservation.”<br /> Morgan served with Lyons on the ARPB several years ago and recalls how he flew to Florida from New York in the morning to attend a meeting, then flew back to New York that afternoon.<br /> “He’s a very good choice,” said Commissioner Joan Orthwein. “He’s knowledgable of what’s going on in the town — the building and the new construction.”<br /> Lyons, 70, has owned a home on Polo Drive since 2006. Professionally, he has a background in finance and business that will be an asset for the commission, Morgan said.<br /> “He seems very energetic and very willing in working on the ARPB,” said Commissioner Donna White.<br /> Ganger is recovering from a stroke suffered in April. The commission unanimously approved the appointment of Commissioner Thomas Stanley to replace him as the town’s vice mayor.<br /> “Bob is an important member of this commission,” Morgan said. “He’s truly a unique one, with knowledge and experience, who’s able to express it with eloquence that really has evidenced his leadership capabilities.”<br /> Commissioners said they will miss the breadth of Ganger’s knowledge: He earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale, an MBA from Harvard, then went on to become a senior vice president at Kraft General Foods, where he oversaw product management of Jell-O.<br /> Since settling in Gulf Stream 24 years ago, Ganger has championed preservation causes, co-founding the Florida Coalition for Preservation in 2007. <br />He has taken a lead role in representing Gulf Stream’s interests before governments in Delray Beach and the barrier island communities — and in Tallahassee, where last year he lobbied the state Legislature to give municipalities relief from abuses of public records laws. <br />He was instrumental in putting together Gulf Stream’s ambitious project to move its utility lines underground.<br /> “He’s unique in my opinion as someone in the town of Gulf Stream who could give countless hours and energy helping this town, improving this town, preserving this town,” Morgan said.<br /> Orthwein said, “Nobody can replace Mr. Ganger.”</p></div>