South Palm Beach Mayor Martin Millar isn’t sure whether to believe his own town clerk and said he has asked the Palm Beach County State Attorney to investigate whether a Town Council candidate filed for office after the deadline.
It’s the latest issue to bubble to the top of a simmering dispute over a defeated proposal to erect a 10-story luxury hotel in a town of condominiums.
Pjeter Paloka, one of the owners who want to expand the two-story Palm Beach Oceanfront Inn, claims that prospective candidate Clare Semer didn’t emerge from Town Clerk Janet Whipple’s office until 50 minutes after the noon Feb. 9 deadline for filing.
“Anyone who abides by the law should be offended by this blatant violation of state law,” Paloka said. Whipple said Semer qualified with time to spare. “She was in my office at 20 minutes to 12 and she had her paperwork, check and everything,” Whipple said.
The rest of the time was spent with Whipple explaining campaign contribution and expense record-keeping and deadlines.
At 12:19 p.m. on the final filing day, Paloka said he demanded copies of Semer’s qualification papers but Whipple was behind closed doors with Semer.
“If I had really done something wrong and found out about it later, I would have said, ‘I’m sorry, you didn’t qualify,’ ” Whipple said.
Semer said she arrived at Town Hall at about 11:30 a.m. and her qualifying papers are time-stamped 11:40 a.m. “I’m shocked about all this, although why should I be?” she said.
Meanwhile, Millar interrupted Semer’s meeting with Whipple twice with a phone call and then appeared in person to demand a list of the qualified candidates.
Both state and county elections officials have refused to get involved in the disagreement. So Millar went to the State Attorney’s Office.
“We need a full investigation,” he said at the Feb. 23Town Council meeting. “If it stinks, it stinks. It’s not for me or anyone else here to say who is right and who is wrong.”
Semer, an alternate on the planning board, said she backs the town comprehensive plan’s building height limit of six stories. The Paloka family wants nine stories and a parking garage.
The proposal was defeated in September but two of the council members who opposed it, Charles McCrosson and Joseph Flagello, are not seeking re-election. Six candidates are on the March 9 ballot for the two positions.
Paloka said he did not know Semer’s position on the hotel until after she had filed. “That just detracts from the real issue. It’s a red herring,” he said.
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