☀️ Your right to know
Happy Sunshine Week, the annual nationwide celebration of access to public information. For you today, charter changes, road money, Sears redux and, soon, a health clinic for all.
🗳️ Group opposes WPB charter changes, proposes two of its own
A political committee urging voters to oppose two charter change proposals on the March 19 West Palm Beach ballot emerged last week.
But that’s not all. The committee backed by restaurateur Rodney Mayo, who ran an aborted campaign for mayor last year, announced that it is gathering signatures to put two charter changes of its own on the ballot.
Mayo wants voters to support creation of a city ethics commission and return to single-member districts, in which the city's five commissioners would be elected only by voters in a specific district.
A little background: The city is asking voters to extend the residency requirement for city commissioners to one year from six months and to keep any future mayor from engaging in outside employment, as Stet reported in September.
The measures have drawn little publicity as early voting began March 9. The measures are not mentioned on the city’s elections web page.
The city doesn’t post contributions to political committees on its website (as it does for contributions to candidates) but Mayo, who owns bars, restaurants and coffee shops under the Subculture brand, says he has provided most of the money to the new committee, Take Our City Back.
Yes, but: The committee plans to exist long after March 19 as it tries to secure about 4,500 signatures on petitions to add the ethics commission and single-member districts to a future West Palm Beach ballot, Mayo announced last week at an organizational meeting attended by about 40 residents.
He said the city needs an independent ethics commission because its ethics officer does nothing. Commissioners would be appointed by the chief judge of the 15th Judicial Circuit, the state attorney, the public defender, the Urban League of Palm Beach County and the president of Florida Atlantic University. The city would pay the commission’s bills.
The proposal is modeled on a similar ethics commission in Tallahassee. It’s also similar to the existing Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics, which is empowered to weigh in on city matters.
Of note: The state Legislature passed a bill last week that critics say kneecaps ethics commissions by blocking them from investigating anonymous complaints or issues raised in news stories.
Single-member districts: The change would reduce the cost of campaigns, encouraging more candidates to run, Mayo said. It also would reduce the power of the city’s western communities, which often vote as a bloc, he said. That gives them an outsized role in deciding all five seats, not just their own.
Matthew Luciano, who is running against City Commissioner Christina Lambert, said at the organizational meeting that he is not allowed to speak in some gated western communities, making it difficult to win voter support.
The city enacted single-member districts in 1995 to settle a federal lawsuit filed by black residents who said at-large voting discriminated against them.
Yes, but: After a change in Supreme Court precedent, a political committee called Back to Five petitioned to put at-large elections on the March 1997 ballot. By a three-to-one measure, city voters switched back to at-large voting.
Opponents said they wanted to have a say in electing all five commissioners so they all would be responsive to them.
Proponents say it assures each district a commissioner committed to their needs and cuts campaign costs by reducing the size of the voting audience.
🛣️ Bill forces city, county to negotiate road fees
Palm Beach County and Palm Beach Gardens will have until October 2025 to work out their differences over sharing money from developers to help manage traffic, under a bill that has passed both houses of the Legislature.
A little background: The failure to share the fees led to the county suing the city in 2021, a case that remains unresolved. In February, Stet reported that officials from Gardens and neighboring Lake Park went to Tallahassee to testify in favor of Senate Bill 688 and House Bill 479, while Palm Beach County officials and the Florida Association of Counties testified against.
City officials supported the bill’s aim to clarify a city’s right to collect “mobility fees” to offset road impacts in their city. Palm Beach County argued that city developments affect the county road network and the county needs all the money to keep up with construction.
In Palm Beach County, the fees added up to about $20 million a year, a county official testified.
In late February, the counties signed off on an amendment that calls for cities and counties to agree in advance on how the money will be split, while assuring that developers be charged only one time for their impacts on roads.
Yes, but: If a city and county can’t reach an agreement by Oct. 1, 2025, the bill says developers get a 10 percent discount on their fees. The money would be split between the city and the county based on “the transportation capacity impacts apportioned to the county and municipality” in the developer's traffic impact study.
What’s next: The bill goes before the governor for his signature. It would be effective July 1.
“I am cautiously very optimistic that it will get signed,” City Attorney Max Lohman told the Gardens City Council March 7.
🤝 Sears lawsuit settled
We told you last week about the sudden departure of Sears from the Gardens Mall and the series of lawsuits leading up to the moment.
What we didn’t know was that Palm Beach Gardens held a seven-minute specially called City Council meeting on March 1 to sign off on a legal settlement.
The city’s outside counsel, Scott Hawkins of Jones Foster, said during the meeting the 2019 lawsuits involving the city, Sears successor Transform Operating Stores and mall owner Forbes/Cohen Florida Properties would be settled at no cost to the city.
“I’m pleased to report that we have a tentative settlement, a complete settlement, of all claims and issues in the dispute,” Hawkins said.
The council voted unanimously to accept the settlement, which was not provided as part of the meeting backup. The meeting video is posted on the city’s website here.
Sears, an original mall tenant dating to 1988, posted a tiny note on its exterior doors that same day saying it had closed.
Its lease with Michigan-based landlord Forbes, which ran until 2058, has been extinguished, Hawkins said.
“However you want to look at it, that’s a very significant development,” Hawkins said. “So I think the prospects for the mall and the city and the surrounding development are really, really meaningful.”
He did not say how much Forbes paid Transform to buy out the lease. But the 150,000-square-foot, two-level store will be turned over to Forbes in 30 to 90 days, he told the council.
Hawkins did not mention Dick’s Sporting Goods, the store blocked from taking over Sears’ second-floor space. Dick’s sued Forbes but not the city in federal court in 2020 and was scheduled for a Sept. 9 trial date.
☀️ The juice
📣 Go ahead and say “gay” is the message plaintiffs are taking from a settlement announced Monday in their lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the state’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law. The state also claimed victory. It agreed to inform schools that the law does not prohibit classroom references to LGBTQ+ people but it requires neutrality and bars classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity of all types. (Miami Herald $$$)
Addiction recovery advocates are outraged over attack mailers sent to Lake Worth Beach voters purporting to show overdosed addicts, adding to the tumult in the campaign for a commission seat between incumbent Kim Stokes and Mimi May. (ByJoeCapozzi.com)
🎓 School board members informally agree to build a new high school in Riviera Beach. The $250 million package, including $150 million for the new school, calls for relocating Inlet Grove High School to the site of Lincoln Elementary. (WLRN)
Shafiqah Hudson, who fought trolls on social media, dies at 46. She attended Dreyfoos School of the Arts in West Palm Beach. (The New York Times gift link)
👨🏼🍳 A world-renowned chef and restaurateur behind Napa’s French Laundry is returning to his roots to revive Ta-boo in Palm Beach. (Wine Spectator)
🏥 New medical clinic rises in Riviera Beach
A partnership between Riviera Beach and a nonprofit is on its way to making health care more accessible in the city.
What’s happening: FoundCare launched construction of a medical clinic last week on property donated by Riviera Beach.
Stet reported in May that FoundCare was raising $10 million to pay for the clinic planned at 3501 Broadway.
In addition to the 15,000-square-foot medical center, the building will include 5,000 square feet for small business startups.
Mayor Ronnie Felder noted the city’s connection with FoundCare was forged when the agency provided COVID testing to residents during the pandemic.
What’s next: The clinic is expected to open in early 2025.
Services will include adult and pediatric primary care, dentistry and an on-site pharmacy.
Meanwhile: Riviera Beach residents can visit the FoundCare mobile unit. More info here.
☀️ Sunshine Week highlights the importance of open government and the dangers of excessive and unnecessary secrecy. It has its roots in Florida, building on Sunshine Sunday launched by newspaper editors in 2002.
Access to public records is critical to Stet News Palm Beach’s government accountability reporting. For example:
Coverage of the shooting of Romen Phelps at Dreyfoos School of the Performing Arts.
Insight into the abrupt closing of a new signature building on FAU’s Jupiter campus.
Stet is proud to join good government organizations, other newsrooms and civic groups in promoting the significance of government transparency and your right to know.
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