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Overflow crowd welcomes new council as incoming mayor lays out his agenda

Council members (l-r) Adrian Burcet and Sandra Beckett, Mayor Rafael Pineiro and members Fran Attardi and Ray McMillan attend the first council meeting after an election in which Burcet, Pineiro and Attardi defeated incumbents. At the March 17 meeting, Pineiro recommended that all work on the Town Hall project be suspended. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star

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By Brian Biggane

While Election Day was a mixed blessing for newly elected South Palm Beach Mayor Rafael Pineiro, the first Town Council meeting for him and fellow newcomers Fran Attardi and Adrian Burcet proved to be an over-the-top celebration.

An overflow crowd packed the council chamber at Town Hall — the building whose future was at the heart of the election campaign — and filled it with boisterous applause.

Pineiro, whose election night victory celebration was interrupted for health reasons, wasted little time after being sworn in to unveil a five-point checklist ­— highlighted by dismissing the firm CPZ Architects and calling for the cessation of the Town Hall replacement project.

Pineiro revealed after the March 17 council meeting that he was in agony for much of Election Day on March 10, staying in town only briefly after learning he had been victorious over long-standing incumbent Bonnie Fischer before heading to the hospital for a five-day stay to have two kidney stones removed.

“We had a party to celebrate but I just stayed for a few hugs,” he said, adding he was heading back to Boca Raton Regional Hospital the day after being sworn in.

Fischer and defeated Council member Elvadianne Culbertson expressed little emotion after opening the March 17 meeting on the dais and then taking seats in the audience. 

Fischer stayed silent throughout while Culbertson asked just one question during the 95-minute proceeding. The former council members did, however, receive one of the loudest ovations of the proceeding when thanked for their work by Pineiro.

Monte Berendes, the other council incumbent defeated on March 10, was absent due to illness, but monitored the meeting by phone. 

Much of the discussion at the meeting revolved around Pineiro’s five-point plan, which consisted of:

• Stopping all work on the Town Hall project and dismissing CPZ; lead architect Joe Barry had been scheduled to give an update and was in attendance;

• Hiring an engineering firm to determine whether the current Town Hall can be retrofitted or needs to be replaced;

• Coordinating with the Lake Worth Beach Regional Sewer System to fast-track work on a new lift station to ensure, as Pineiro put it, “our toilets continue to flush”;

• Working with the Florida Department of Transportation to replace the deteriorating sidewalk running the length of town on the west side of State Road A1A; 

• Working with Florida Power & Light to run power lines underground throughout the town, as has been done in other local municipalities.

While Pineiro’s alliance with Attardi and Burcet assured that his proposals would all be approved by the five-person council, Council member Sandra Beckett, the only incumbent to win a seat on Election Day, voiced opposition and demonstrated she will likely be a foil to the majority as she embarks on her two-year term.

“This just seems like an overwhelming step forward to do all of these at the same time,” said Beckett. 

She also reminded the newcomers that the council had worked many years on the Town Hall project and nearly brought it to fruition, and that a representative from the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council is scheduled to make a proposal regarding the sidewalks at the council’s April meeting.

Pineiro responded that while he appreciated Beckett’s comments, “the March 10 election was a referendum” on the council’s direction.

Council member Ray McMillan, who won’t be up for election until 2028, voted with Pineiro and his associates on every issue without objection. 

Even Burcet, who at 27 has become the youngest elected official in Palm Beach County, had more input.

The council appointed Attardi to be vice mayor.

Pineiro rained praise on Town Manager Jamie Titcomb and said that, while his workload going forward will certainly be considerable, he expects Titcomb and his staff to be up to the challenge. He also said he expects monthly progress reports on each of his proposals.

Pineiro said late in the meeting that a principal reason he, Attardi and Burcet were elected was his hard work spreading their message, knocking on hundreds of doors in the community. He said for the most part residents were unaware of the workings of the council, including the Town Hall project that had been expected to consume about half of the town’s $12.8 million general fund.

“Two days before the election, as I went door to door, eight out of 10 doors that opened (the people) did not even know what was going on,” he said. “And I know it’s incredible, but I actually have witnesses.”

During the comment portion to close the meeting, town activist Ellen Salth scolded her fellow residents, pointing out that fewer than 40% of them turned out to vote — though that was among the highest turnouts in a county that, overall, had only a 17% turnout. Pineiro’s margin of victory over Fischer was 17 votes.

“We’ve got some big elections coming up, a new governor, a lot of new offices up for grabs, so people need to get involved,” Salth said.