News

By Rich Pollack

Following the refusal of residents to approve four out of five proposed charter changes, Highland Beach commissioners set out in March to identify lessons learned that could be applied to future ballot initiatives.
In what turned out to be a sometimes emotional discussion, a representative of the group that led opposition to the majority of changes charged that commissioners didn’t do a good enough job of getting resident input prior to formulating the proposed reforms.
Commissioners countered that residents had plenty of opportunities to voice their opinions — during months of Charter Review Committee meetings and commission meetings — but there didn’t seem to be much public interest at the time.
“It infuriates me that people didn’t come and say something,” said a usually calm Commissioner Evalyn David. “Don’t complain now if you weren’t there before.”
David and other commissioners also spoke out against what they said was a negative campaign conducted by people opposed to the changes.
By the end of the discussion the commissioners and resident Jack Halperin — who is likely to take over the Committee to Save Highland Beach from its current leader, John Ross, who is moving — agreed to work to improve resident involvement.
“What I want to do is see what we can do as a citizens’ group to get more people involved,” Halperin said. “What I would like to do is move forward.”
During the March 8 election, 1,400 votes were cast by about 36% of the town’s registered voters.
On a ballot question that would require a referendum before the town could turn over operations of the police department, the proposed fire department or the water plant to an outside organization, all but 5% voted yes.
The other four initiatives, however, were supported by only about 40% of the voters.
Close to 840 residents voted against a proposal that would have raised the town’s unique spending cap from $350,000 on any one project to 5% of the overall town budget, which this year would have increased the cap to slightly over $1 million.
On the proposal that would eliminate the need for commissioners to sign checks and give the authority to the town manager and finance director, 827 voters said no, with 567 voting yes.
The proposal that would have increased term limits for commissioners received 44% of the yes vote, while the ballot question allowing commissioners to determine their salaries by ordinance rather than referendum failed with 60% voting no.
“What I heard loud and clear is that residents want to be more empowered and maintain much of the control,” Vice Mayor Natasha Moore said.
Moore echoed the concerns of other commissioners, wondering why residents didn’t ask more questions at several meetings and at other public gatherings with food trucks and a morning chat hosted by the mayor.
“There are all these opportunities for public comment; why didn’t the public come to the meetings?” she said.
Several commissioners pointed out that an analysis of the ballots showed the majority of mail-in ballots were in favor of the initiatives while the majority of in-person votes were against them.
Commissioners said they believe that was an indication that a substantial email and U.S. mail campaign by the Committee to Save Highland Beach had an impact.
The commissioners had contended for weeks that the negative campaign was misleading, dishonest and filled with what they called lies.
“Something happened between those who mailed in their ballot and those who walked in,” said Commissioner John Shoemaker. “Fear, uncertainty and doubt were created on a level I have never seen. It was such outrageous stuff.”
Shoemaker, in an effort to look forward, said that community teamwork needs to be strengthened.
“What we got was an adversarial approach,” he said.
He also called for more community outreach by the commission and more education for residents.
Commissioners also heard from former Planning Board Chair David Axelrod, who suggested getting the town’s advisory boards more involved in the charter review process.
For the most part, commissioners agreed that more outreach and education are needed and trust needs to be rebuilt.
“We all want to work together,” Moore said.