By Brian Biggane
The South Palm Beach Town Council addressed its lingering vacancy at its September meeting, but it’s likely to be some time before a fifth member is added.
Vice Mayor Monte Berendes said near the end of the meeting that the vacancy — in place already for six months — should be addressed at the October meeting. That suggestion produced another from Mayor Bonnie Fischer: that the town hold a special election rather than rely on the council to make an appointment.
Fischer was not aware that the Town Charter does not allow council members to be chosen by a special election, so the onus still falls on the four current council members to make that decision. The alternative is to leave the seat open until the next regular election, which doesn’t occur until March 2026, when the current unexpired term is set to end.
Town Manager Jamie Titcomb said the situation has become awkward since the terms of council members were extended from two to four years.
The council lost two members in the past year, the first in December when Robert Gottlieb resigned because of health concerns and an unwillingness to release more details of his financial situation, which was part of a new state mandate for all elected municipal officials. That requirement has since been put on hold statewide due to a court challenge of its constitutionality.
Three candidates were interviewed to replace Gottlieb, and after the council tied 2-2 at its February meeting, Elvadianne Culbertson won the seat on a 3-1 vote in March when Ray McMillan switched his vote to her.
That prompted former Vice Mayor Bill LeRoy to resign, citing health reasons, leaving the council again with four members. Jennifer Lesh, who had been nominated by LeRoy and garnered the other two votes in the initial runoff, was no longer interested in a seat on the council. A third candidate at the time, Arnelle Ossendryver, withdrew from consideration to care for her ailing mother.
The council agreed unanimously to table a decision on a fifth member indefinitely; Berendes’ raising of the question in September means it will be on the agenda at the council’s October meeting.
“It’s an interesting case because when you only have four members on the council the calculus is different,” Titcomb said. “Two people can block anything, (while) it normally takes three to approve or disapprove. We have a lot of things coming up, and if they have a 2-2 vote a tie is a fail in the calculus.
“Based on my conversations with the vice mayor, he would rather see us with a full contingent of council members. But to get that they have to follow their own (charter).”
Berendes said he won’t be adamant about filling the vacancy right away.
“Tell me the rules and I can play the game,” he said. “I’m OK with four, but optics would be better if we have five.”
Berendes said he went into the September meeting expecting to have the vacancy filled by the end of the October meeting.
“I didn’t know we had to do it the way it is; I thought we could just put it on the docket and (make the decision) the next month, but I guess not.”
It would take longer than that to enlist applicants, for example.
Berendes said word around town is that someone has “put their hat in the ring” for the vacancy, though he wouldn’t name names. He said the laid-back nature of the town, which has no retail or commercial entities but has been working for years toward building a new Town Hall and community center, has instilled a sense of apathy among residents.
“Everything seems to be working, so there’s no sense screwing up what works,” he said.
As for the decisions coming on the Town Hall project such as hiring contractors and finding an alternate space for town employees when construction gets underway, Berendes said the situation won’t be urgent for some time.
“It’s not going to happen for a while,” he said. “I would hope we break ground in the spring and hopefully they can finish by the next spring. It’s gone on too long, but it’s a small enough building it shouldn’t take a year to build.”
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