By Brian Biggane
In a surprising vote that almost certainly puts the prospects of the South Palm Beach Town Hall project in jeopardy, mayoral candidate Rafael Pineiro and his slate of two other council candidates swept to victory in Tuesday’s town election.
While results from the Supervisor of Elections Office are unofficial, Pineiro ended the 11-year run of Mayor Bonnie Fischer with about 52% of the vote, while newcomer Fran Attardi led all five Town Council candidates and newcomer Adrian Burcet was second.
Pineiro and Attardi won four-year terms. It appears Burcet also won a four-year term and Council member Sandra Beckett, who finished third in the council election, would serve the remaining two years of an unexpired term. It was not clear on election night if a recount would be needed as Burcet and Becket were only two votes apart in the unofficial results. Ray McMillan was the lone incumbent not up for election; his term runs until 2028.
None of the three newcomers have any experience in town government.
Vice Mayor Monte Berendes, who finished fourth in the council election, said the results caught him totally by surprise.
“I am in complete shock,” Berendes said. “This just blows me away. I did not expect this at all.”
Fischer, who had served on the council since 2011, including the last 11 years as mayor, was more subdued.
“It’s a disappointment,” she said. “We had a good council, working together, and it will be interesting to see now what happens with the town.”
The council spent much of the past two years working toward building a new Town Hall to replace the existing one. Fort Lauderdale-based CPZ Architects was hired and delivered drawings for a new two-story building expected to cost about $6-7 million. One of the agenda items for the upcoming March 17 meeting is to review bids from applicants for the general contractor position.
Pineiro, who did not return two phone calls or text messages asking for comment, made the focal point of his campaign a push to hire an engineering firm to study the possibility of renovating the existing building. He and his fellow challengers are expected to dismiss CPZ and essentially start over.
Berendes and Fischer have both gone on record in the past saying Pineiro didn’t have all the facts and that, after nearly 10 years of planning, the time for a new building had come.
“I feel like Rafael misled a lot of people,” Berendes said, “putting out a lot of misinformation on what was going on. But it’s on him now.”
“It’s just very unfortunate,” Fischer added. “We were finally moving forward. It’s just unfortunate to have this change in council.”
Fischer said she was “calmer than I thought I would be” upon getting the results and reflective as she looked back on her 15 years in town government.
“I’ve had a good run,” she said. “I would have liked to have done more, especially with the beaches and the things I was working on. I’ve spent many years on beach issues.
“I never looked at it being a burden, I really didn’t. I enjoyed it, My position allowed me to meet a lot of people I probably wouldn’t, and that’s very important to me.”
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