Before the Boca Raton City Council at a special meeting were a resolution and ordinance challenging Save Boca’s latest petition drive—it sought to overturn council approval last week of the master partnership agreement and lease with Terra/Frisbie for the proposed downtown redevelopment project.
A referendum on the project will take place March 10. Save Boca organized to demand such a vote. Yet John Pearlman, who founded Save Boca, is now demanding action that the city’s legal office said would prevent that vote, because the public needs to see a specific plan.
Because the petition essentially called for a vote that will happen anyway, the resolution called it “duplicative.” As such, the city’s petition rules do not apply. Council members unanimously voted that the clerk would not accept signatures.
“I’m at a loss,” Mayor Scott Singer said, “to understand why we’re here.”
To Pearlman, it was because the city was playing “dirty tricks.” Council members, he claimed, signed a “binding contract” last week that would allow approval even if the referendum failed. Only by wiping out the March 10 vote could residents get their say. Eventually.
City Attorney Joshua Koehler said “for the tenth time” that “nothing happens” with the project “unless voters approve it.” If they don’t, that agreement and lease are “automatically repealed.” Koehler said he was “affirming legal reality.”
The most telling comment came from Joe Majhess, Jr. He had briefly been a council candidate, and he has spoken for months against the project, often in caustic terms about the council. He usually wears a Save Boca T-shirt. This time, however, Majhess spoke caustically about Pearlman, calling the petition “a subversion of democracy” that would prevent the Terra/Frisbie vote. “Don’t fall for his lies.”
Pearlman then—again—claimed that the city attorney had altered the Terra/Frisbie agreement to make it “a binding contract,” regardless of the outcome on March 10. “We will deliver the signed petitions.”
After Pearlman finished, Singer shouted, “Shame on you! Almost everything you said was completely incorrect.”
More evidence that Pearlman had lost the room came from Councilman Andy Thomson, who has been the lone voice on the council against the project. While not part of the Save Boca slate, many Save Boca supporters have praised him.
“I see T-shirts” around town, Thomson said, “recognizing that there will be a vote on March 10.”
As Thomson—a lawyer—told me Wednesday, the agreement is not “self-executing.” It is conditioned on voter approval. That’s why the new petition is redundant.
Yet when we spoke—after months of voicemails—Wednesday, Pearlman continued to deny that reality. “We have the full support of the community” because “the city can’t be trusted.” And what happens when the city doesn’t accept the petitions? “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
Pearlman has largely financed Save Boca, so maybe he considers it his personal campaign vehicle as he challenges Councilman Marc Wigder. He doesn’t seem to have consulted many people before starting this conspiracy theory-based petition drive. Michelle Grau, a council candidate who has Save Boca’s endorsement, told me that she had “no idea” about it.
FAU professor fired for Charlie Kirk comments
Kate Polak said she saw it coming.
Nine days ago, it happened. Florida Atlantic University cleared Polak, then fired her.
Polak was the third of three faculty members whom FAU suspended in September over social media activity related to the killing of right-wing provocateur Charlie Kirk. FAU reinstated the other two in November but extended the investigation into Polak, an instructor in the English Department.
On Jan. 20, the department head notified Polak that her posts “fall well below the university’s standards for civility and respect for others, carry the potential for institutional disruption and harm to the university’s reputation and mission, and would be understood by most readers as condoning on-campus violence.” But the investigative report concluded that “disciplinary action does not appear warranted” under FAU’s collective bargaining agreement.
Nevertheless, FAU would not renew Polak’s contract
“I am not blindsided,” Polak said, “but I am depressed.”
Unlike Business School Professor Rebel Cole and Art History Professor Karen Leader, Polak does not have tenure. After FAU became the only state university to open a Kirk-related investigation and needed to justify it, the university could sacrifice Polak.
The investigation, led by former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Alan Lawson, focused on several posts. One called the killing of Kirk “a ‘win’ that the author ‘enjoyed.’“ In another, Polak “offered to share screenshots and video of ‘the exact moment,’ followed by the initialism ‘lol.’ “ Another stated: “Delighting in the death of someone who wished death on us isn’t sick. It’s self-defense.”
Polak also stated, “I am not in support of what happened to Charlie Kirk.” She did add, “Charlie Kirk was in support of what happened to Charlie Kirk,” referring to his repeated defense of Second Amendment rights.
Polak told investigators, the report said, that she “believed that the posts would be viewed by a small group of friends” and “were not intended to condone gun violence … and that the intended audience would have understood that context … Polak acknowledged that her posts could be misunderstood and expressed willingness to accept guidance about the intersection of social-media use and professional responsibilities.”
Also on social media, Cole said of those who he thought celebrated Kirk’s killing: “We are going to hunt you down. We are going to identify you. Then we are going to make you radioactive to polite society. And we will make you both unemployed and unemployable.”
Cole called that “rhetorical excess.” Lawson found that that comments did not threaten to disrupt FAU’s work.
“A very different standard is being applied to me,” Polak said in an interview. “I am being made an example of.” She called it “a malicious process.” She added, “I am not obligated to mourn anyone.”
Non-renewal would appear to be FAU’s loss, as Polak gets high rankings from students. “I leave my beliefs in the parking lot,” she said. “I adore the student body.”
Polak said she is preparing to file a federal lawsuit on First Amendment grounds. Since September, FAU has stated that it does not comment on personnel matters.
Faculty Senate President William Trapani called Polak’s case “a tragic waste of taxpayer dollars and far more disruptive to the university mission than the supposed violation. After a year of announcing significant university accomplishments, it represents a monumental step in the wrong direction.”
Boca Raton Regional Hospital nurse fired for TikTok comments
Speaking of social media posts, Boca Raton Regional Hospital last week fired a labor and delivery nurse who in a TikTok video wished harm to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt when she has her second child.
As a professional, Lawler said, “It gives me great joy to wish [Leavitt] a fourth-degree tear.” It is the most severe tear of the vagina that can occur in childbirth, requiring immediate surgery. Lawler later deleted the video.
In a statement, Boca Regional said Lawler’s comments “do not reflect our values or the standards we expect of healthcare professionals. While we respect the right to personal opinions, there is no place in healthcare for language or behavior that calls into question a caregiver’s ability to provide compassionate, unbiased care.”
Boca mayoral candidates vie for credit for Terra/Frisbie vote
Speaking of that vote on the Terra/Frisbie project, city council members and mayoral candidates Fran Nachlas and Thomson issued dueling texts taking credit for it.
Nachlas said her approval last week of the master partnership agreement and lease allowed residents “to be able to vote” on the project. Thomson’s no vote on each “would have taken away that right from us—the residents.”
Thomson noted his personal opposition to the project and those no votes, but added, “I also believe that YOU, our residents, should have a say in a decision of this magnitude.” Thomson noted that in September he “pushed for and secured” the requirement that the project go to referendum.
Who’s right? Each is, to a degree. But Thomson is right to a greater degree.
Nachlas is correct that last week’s votes were necessary to hold the vote. Withholding those approvals, the city attorney said, could have invalidated the referendum. Thomson could vote no, knowing that the other four would vote yes.
But Thomson is correct that the project was barreling toward a late-October vote on the agreement and lease before he asked for the vote, to which Terra/Frisbie agreed. If other council members thought the timetable was being rushed, they didn’t act similarly to delay it.
Terra/Frisbie creates pro-One Boca PAC
Speaking again of that vote, Terra/Frisbie has created a political action committee to urge approval. A Better Boca Raton has been sending out promotional mailers.
The group has a Boca Raton address but was organized in Tallahassee. Because it was formed late last year— just before deadline for the most recent reporting period—the amount and sources of donations won’t be public for several weeks.
Boca mayoral and council candidates to participate in forum
Speaking one more time of the election, the 12 mayoral and council candidates will participate in a forum at 6 p.m. tonight before the Federation of Boca Raton Homeowner Associations.
The council candidates will go first. Former Councilwoman Andrea O’Rourke and former candidate Brian Stenberg will moderate. The event will be live-streamed on the federation’s YouTube channel—@FederationofBocaRatonHOAs. A recording will be available on Comcast Xfinity (Channel 20), AT&T Uverse (Channel 99) and Hotwire (Channel 395.)
