By Brian Biggane
Even as it works toward the construction of a new Town Hall and community center, the South Palm Beach Town Council finds itself in a period of upheaval.
Following the resignation of longtime member Robert Gottlieb in December, the council finally elected his replacement, Elvadianne Culbertson, at its April meeting. Two days later,
Vice Mayor Bill LeRoy resigned, once again leaving the governing body one member short.
The election of Culbertson came as a bit of surprise. It occurred when Council member Ray McMillan asked for another vote as a follow-up to the 2-2 standoff in March and then switched his vote from Jennifer Lesh to Culbertson.
“She was on before and she does have the experience, and a lot of dedication,” McMillan said afterward. “She’ll do fine.”
While LeRoy made no public comment on the switch, he had been the one pushing for Lesh and his body language made it clear he was unhappy with the outcome. He left the room immediately after the meeting, skipping a social gathering to which he had been invited.
“I felt my candidate was a much better fit for the town,” LeRoy said two days later, on April 11. “Elva had already been on the council, and when she ran (for reelection) she lost.”
Those comments came only moments after LeRoy had returned to Town Hall to submit his resignation to Town Manager Jamie Titcomb.
“I’m on the 10-year plan,” LeRoy said of his decision. “I figure I’ve got 10 years to live, and I’m not going to do anything that makes me unhappy or stresses me out. And that to me is a stressful job. I don’t need the job; I put in my five or six years. That’s enough, I guess.
“Effective today, I’m out.”
LeRoy joined the council in 2018 to finish another member’s term and was elected to a three-year term a year later. He was reelected in 2022 to a four-year term that still has two years to run.
Mayor Bonnie Fischer said she was “saddened” by the news and felt the council had been working seamlessly toward construction of the new Town Hall building, which is expected to start shortly. But she said she was aware of the health issues LeRoy cited in his decision.
“That did concern me,” she said. “He’s been struggling for quite a while. I’m sorry that it ended like that, but that’s his choice. He reached a point where he didn’t want to do it anymore.”
In her remarks after the meeting on her election, Culbertson extended an olive branch of sorts to LeRoy, stating that she wouldn’t be as “chatty” as she was in her previous stint on the council, which ran from 2017 to 2019.
“The main thing Bill had against me before is that I would voice my opinion,” she said. “But what I’m going to try to do now is, once I get the agenda, draft what I have to say, so at the meeting they’ll say ‘You’re right’ or whatever. My chattiness won’t be as big a problem.”
Culbertson also said she understood LeRoy’s reasoning when it came to his health.
“If you look at pictures of him a few years ago and now, there’s definitely been a change,” Culbertson said.
When asked if the obvious solution to the problem would be to appoint Lesh to fill the vacant seat, Fischer demurred.
“I don’t want to respond to that,” she said. “This is just a shock and it needs to settle. None of this is my decision so we’ll have to see what the council wants to do.
“I wish him well and I’m sorry he’s not going to be with us during the Town Hall process. I feel bad about that. It was just unexpected.”
Fischer said the matter will be addressed at the council’s May 14 meeting.
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