By Rich Pollack
For more than 30 years, Highland Beach town commissioners have been handcuffed by a $350,000 spending cap on any one project unless voters approve otherwise.
Soon residents could have an opportunity to remove that restraint if a seri
charter (21)
By Mary Hladky
With few residents voicing opposition, City Council members have approved amending the city charter to increase their terms of office from three years to four.
But voters will have the final say. The change will take effect only if a ma
By Rich Pollack
It has been the target of town leaders for more than a decade, with commission after commission taking aim but never being able to shoot down Highland Beach’s notorious spending cap.
Now the commission’s $350,000 spending limit on any
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
By Rich Pollack
Voters will weigh in on five proposed changes to the town’s charter March 8, all of which could impact the way Highland Beach operates for many years to come.
“The charter is a road map forward for the town similar to the Constitution
By Rich Pollack
As Highland Beach residents prepare to vote on five recommended Town Charter revisions, much of the focus has been on one change that would significantly modify the town’s spending cap from $350,000 to slightly over $1 million.
During
By Rich Pollack
For at least two decades, Highland Beach town leaders have raised concerns about being handcuffed by a spending cap that requires voter approval for any project over $350,000.
First imposed in 1991, the limitation has caused hand-wri
By Dan Moffett
Briny Breezes voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum in the March 9 municipal election that gives the town its first formal charter.
The vote was 96 to 8, a 92.3% endorsement of the new rules for governance.
The approval is the cu
Election Results:
By Dan Moffett
Mayor Gene Adams and Town Manager Bill Thrasher have been working to drive down the costs of holding a March 9 special election to consider a ballot referendum that would give Briny Breezes its first real town charte
By Dan Moffett
The town of Briny Breezes has been running on a largely improvised collection of rules and regulations since its incorporation as a municipality in 1963.
That could change next year after the March election.
Briny voters will get the c
By Dan Moffett
In March, South Palm Beach voters overwhelmingly approved a charter amendment that gave the mayor the power to declare emergencies.
When the Town Council debated putting the referendum on the ballot late last year, the thinking was the
Commissioners Evalyn David and Peggy Gossett-Seidman with the documents. Photos by Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Rich Pollack
It was a Highland Beach happening that had all the earmarks of a made-for-TV special.
A safety deposit box is discovered
By Sallie James
City Council members who have waited years to get a raise finally got the green light on Aug. 30: A charter change establishing the raises squeaked through with 50.4 percent of the vote.
Voters resoundingly approved a second charter ch
Delray Beach voters overwhelmingly approved changing the city charter to give the City Commission authority to appoint an internal auditor. The vote was 9,318 to 3,144.
The vote on a second referendum question, on allowing the City Commission
By Dan Moffett
At the urging of the town’s civic association, Gulf Stream commissioners are planning to take a hard look at their elections and consider changes to the charter.
Last month, the civic association sent a letter to the commission
Voters will decide whether to amend Delray Beach’s Charter in the March 12 election after the City Commission approved four of five changes recommended by the Charter Review Committee.
The proposed amendments: clarify language to make the char
By Tim O’Meilia
Ten years ago, a gang of four Point Manalapan residents made a federal case out of voting districts in Manalapan, where oceanside residents had half the U.S. census-tallied residents but twice the number of seats on the Town Comm
Call it Showdown at the Charter Change Corral.
Mayor Bernard Featherman and Commissioner Doris Trinley split sharply with Vice Mayor Ron Brown and Commissioners Dennis Sheridan and Louis Stern on how big an expense has to be to trigger a town referend
By Tim O’Meilia
For the second month in a row, the South Palm Beach Town Council rejected a request by the Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn by the same 3-2 vote.
In July, the request was to operate watercraft. On Aug. 25, it was to extend bar hours on Fri
By Tim O’Meilia
A heated argument between the South Palm Beach mayor and a council member ignitedan extended round of shouting and catcalling from residents who attended the July 27 Town Council meeting.
At the center of it all: the Palm Beach Oce
