March 13 update: After a machine recount on Friday, the South Palm Beach Town Council race stayed the same as it had been on election night on Tuesday. Adrian Burcet expanded his second-place lead to four votes, creating a big enough spread between him and third-place finisher, incumbent Sandra Beckett, so that a manual recount was not needed. Burcet and first-place finisher Francesca Attardi have been elected to four-year terms and Beckett will serve the remainder of a two-year unexpired term.
South Palm Beach Town Council member Sandra Beckett, center, listens intently to the details of how the recount would be handled Friday afternoon. South Palm Beach was part of the March 13 recount to settle the election results for Town Council. After a machine recount, the county canvassing board determined that newcomers Francesca Attardi and Adrian Burcet had won seats on the Town Council, and council member Sandra Beckett had won reelection. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
The final vote in the South Palm Beach Town Council race after the March 13 machine recount. The top three finishers were elected. Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office
March 12 update: The Supervisor of Elections office will conduct a recount in the South Palm Beach Town Council race, where only three votes separate the second- and third-place council candidates. While both are elected -- newcomer Adrian Burcet and incumbent Sandra Beckett -- as there were three council openings, the second-place finisher will receive a full four-year term and the third-place finisher an unexpired two-year term.
The latest South Palm Beach Town Council results released March 12. A recount will be held March 13 because of the closeness of the race for the second- and third-place spots. The second-place finisher gets a four-year term and the third-place finisher a two-year unexpired term.
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. Unless a recount changes the order of finish, Burcet as the second-place council finisher would also get a four-year term, while Council member Sandra Beckett, who finished third in the unofficial results of the council election, would serve the remaining two years of an unexpired term. 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.”
Comments