News

From left, Bob Ganger, Joan Orthwein, Thomas Stanley, Donna White and Scott Morgan

are sworn in by Gulf Stream Town Clerk Rita Taylor.

Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

By Dan Moffett

    Gulf Stream voters turned out in large numbers last month for the town’s first contested commission election in 21 years. 

    Though four incumbents and a newcomer who supported them won by wide margins over the town’s harshest critic, the election appears to have done little to ease the rancor or resolve the courtroom fights that have plagued Gulf Stream for the past two years.

    Twenty minutes into the first commission meeting after the election — and shortly before newcomer Scott Morgan was to be sworn in as a commissioner — Martin O’Boyle had Morgan served with a subpoena for a deposition in one of O’Boyle’s lawsuits against the town.

    O’Boyle may have lost his bid for a commission seat but he has left little doubt that he is carrying on his campaign in the courts.

    “I’m still hoping that things will settle down,” said Morgan, an attorney and businessman who is the former chairman of the town’s architectural board. “I hope we can get back to doing things in a calm, civil, less divisive way.”

    Morgan said he took the election results and the standing-room-only turnout for the swearing-in ceremonies as support for the new commission and the return to the quieter times that many in the town seek.

    Gulf Stream had the highest turnout of any municipality in Palm Beach County on March 11, with 58.49 percent, 417 of the 713 registered voters, casting ballots. Morgan and Robert Ganger led the vote-getters with 325 each, 18.87 percent; Donna White had 320, 18.58 percent; Thomas Stanley 317, 18.41 percent; and Mayor Joan Orthwein 313, 18.18 percent; O’Boyle had 122 votes, 7.08 percent.

    O’Boyle sent an email to his supporters giving credit to his opponents for their victory and crediting his own campaign with bringing about changes that the town needs, most notably energizing the electoral process.

    “I entered this election to win and effect change,” O’Boyle wrote, “and with the help of the people, I accomplished all goals. 1) I entered the election (although I was not elected) but I feel that the people, through our joint efforts, clearly won; and 2) the beating of the drums of change can already be heard.”

    O’Boyle said he intends to take his complaints to the newly seated commission.

    “Gulf Stream has many complex issues that must be dealt with,” he wrote. “As applies to them, I can say that I and my supporters are committed to working with the commissioners to resolve those issues.”

    The town’s first election since 1993 went off with only a minor incident, according to Town Clerk Rita Taylor. Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Susan Bucher checked out Town Hall on election day and found that O’Boyle’s campaign truck was parked too close to the poll entrance.

    “His truck with the campaign signs was within the 100-foot no-no zone,” Taylor said, “so he had to move it. Otherwise, there weren’t any problems.”

Issues going forward

    One of the most pressing issues that the new commission must face is the rising legal fees caused by O’Boyle’s numerous lawsuits, and those of one of his most vocal campaign supporters, Chris O’Hare. The legal fight between O’Boyle and the town began with a dispute over a home remodeling project and has expanded into allegations of violations of public-records laws and infringement of constitutional rights.

    In a hastily called special meeting on March 28 — a Friday afternoon — the Town Commission unanimously approved hiring Boca Raton lawyer Robert Sweetapple as special counsel for defending the town against its many lawsuits.

    Morgan nominated Sweetapple and praised him as an attorney experienced in public-records cases and municipal litigation.

    “I believe a special counsel will lead to an expeditious resolution and ultimately be less expensive,” said Morgan, noting that Sweetapple usually charges $500 an hour but was willing to represent Gulf Stream for $350.

    Defending a municipality is a bit of a role reversal for Sweetapple, who has earned a reputation as a tenacious litigator in bringing several high-profile cases against the cities of Boca Raton and Boynton Beach. In 2005, he charged Boca police with misconduct and brutality in the arrest of a wealthy developer.

    Last year, Gulf Stream wound up paying $395,000 in legal expenses, most of it because of O’Boyle. Town Manager William Thrasher warned commissioners that the town has already burned through nearly all of the $93,500 earmarked for legal expenses in the current budget year. O’Boyle’s latest suit against the town was a complaint filed in federal court over the town’s code restrictions of his campaign signs.

    “We are behind on legal fees, and the escalating costs are now starting to hit our budget,” Thrasher said. “If you project that out, we’re going to be over budget by somewhere around $150,000.”

    White said it will be challenging for the commission to find the money to cover the rising costs of legal defenses. 

    “The fees are awfully high,” said White. “Attorneys are just expensive, and to be at that part of the budget this early in the year is really disturbing.”

    Morgan said that, talking to residents during the campaign, he was confident that most townspeople “were willing to contribute” to fighting off the lawsuits against the town. 

    “I don’t see any sign that those two (O’Boyle and O’Hare) are going to back off, so I really think a very strong, aggressive defense needs to be taken,” said Morgan. “The vast majority of people, on both sides of the Intracoastal, want to defend the cases aggressively.”

    The last act of business for the old commission, which included the outgoing Garrett Dering, was to pass unanimously new decorum guidelines for commission meetings.

    Under the new provisions, people who launch personal attacks at commissioners, use profanity or disrupt the meetings face expulsion or arrest. The new rules came in response to the tumultuous February meeting in which O’Hare and town officials had several heated exchanges after his mother had difficulty using the Town Hall restroom.

    Thrasher said the town “is making progress” with restroom design changes and repairs that will make the facilities more compliant with federal Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. He said engineering plans for a larger restroom renovation will be coming to the commission later this year.