News

By Tim O’Meilia
    
South Palm Beach Town Clerk Janet Whipple didn’t want the blubbering or the farewell hugging.
   She didn’t want her resignation letter distributed before the Sept. 24 Town Council meeting. But Town Manager Rex Taylor insisted the council be informed.
Whipple, who planned to retire in 2014 anyway, resigned effective Nov. 8 to take a part-time position as town clerk of Loxahatchee Groves — “an opportunity for part time employment has come my way that I would be foolish to turn down,” she wrote in her resignation letter.
    Since she was hired in January 2008, Whipple has helped guide the seaside community through the turmoil over the Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn and the resulting tumultuous town elections.
    For nearly six years, she has made the two-hour round-trip drive from her Pahokee home to South Palm Beach. In her clerking career, she has worked in Ocala, Jupiter, Pahokee and Delray Beach. She was head of the county’s town clerk association and earned her master municipal clerk certification.
    And she was right about the blubbering:
    “I am happy for you but you will be missed,” said Vice Mayor Joseph Flagello.
    “It is with great trepidation that we accept this resignation,” said Councilwoman Stella Jordan.
    “Loxahatchee Groves has made a very wise choice,” said Mayor Donald Clayman.
    “Janet will bring a great deal of background to them,” said Councilman Robert Gottlieb.
    “It will no longer be the Brad and Janet show,” Town Attorney Brad Biggs said in reference toward two main characters in the Rocky Horror Picture Show film.
    And finally: “Janet has gone out of her way to be helpful to me. It’s a big loss for the town,” said Councilwoman Bonnie Fischer.
    In other business, the council:
    • Supported signing an inlet-to-inlet beach management agreement with the state, Palm Beach County and other coastal towns if the town of Palm Beach signs the agreement absorbing the costs of the annual monitoring of beach width, hardbottom and sea turtle nesting.
    • Approved unanimously a “public participation” policy for town meetings that limits speakers to three minutes, forbids boisterous comments and addressing individual council members and bans cellphone interruptions. The policy is required by state law.
    • Approved unanimously a $2.1 million budget beginning Oct. 1 that holds the tax rate at the current level of $4.32 per $1,000 of taxable property value. The town will dip $27,000 from reserves to balance the budget. At the Sept. 17 public hearing, Jordan proposed reducing the tax rate to $4.29, but got no support from other council members.