Boca election update
In barely a week, the dynamic of the Boca Raton City Council election has dramatically changed.
As the qualifying deadline of Jan. 12 loomed, the race figured to be a spitting content between former friends Frank Chapman and Armand Grossman with IBMer—yes, the company still has a presence in the city—Jeremy Rodgers trying to stay out of the crossfire and casting himself as the compromise candidate. Chapman’s wife had financed two early mailers attacking Grossman’s business record, and Chapman was promising more. Grossman was vowing “legal action.”
Then on that final day of qualifying, Realtor and Junior Leaguer Jamie Sauer got into the Seat C race. (Robert Weinroth won a full term in Seat D with no opposition.) And this week, Grossman dropped out.
Sauer thus emerges as the establishment choice, with all the backing that distinction brings. Steven Abrams, a former Boca mayor and city council member and now the county commissioner representing the city, already had said he would assist Sauer. Now Susan Whelchel, who served as mayor until last year, will hold a fundraiser at her Boca Raton Yacht & Country Club home on Jan. 29. Sauer held her kickoff party Tuesday night at iPic in Mizner Park.
By withdrawing, Grossman removes Chapman’s most prominent target. Sauer’s supporters, some of whom first had been willing to back Grossman, had been urging Grossman to give up the race after Sauer entered. Grossman had done almost nothing publicly—short of being outraged— to counteract the mailers, even though the first went through around Thanksgiving.
Especially with turnout expected to be lower than last year— when the mayor’s race got lots of attention—no one should underestimate the Junior League network and how much it could help Sauer. Also, Grossman introduced Sauer at the iPic event. He said Sauer and Rodgers are “two good candidates.” Chapman, Grossman said, “would be a disaster.” Grossman withdrew because “I wasn’t prepared for slimeball politics” that “besmirches Boca’s reputation.” Grossman said he “wasn’t trying to launch a political career, not at this age”—he turns 72 next month—“but this is what (Chapman) does.”
Chapman told me Wednesday that he “wishes Armand well.” The campaign, he said, “will be about the complicated financial and development issues that affect our town.”
Here’s the response from a consultant who has been helping Chapman: “It’s become pretty clear that the development community and the political establishment have found their candidate in Jamie Sauer. What they fail to realize is that the residents in the community get to pick who will represent them, not the elites.”
That sounds like the campaign theme of Anthony Majhess, who lost to Mayor Susan Haynie a year ago. It also sounds ironic, since Chapman ran unsuccessfully in 2012 against the anti-establishment Majhess. But Chapman is right that Sauer has the establishment with her. Now we will see if there’s a gentle push to get Rodgers out of the race and further enhance the Sauer-Chapman distinction.
“I’m sure there are people who will reach out that way,” Rodgers told me Wednesday, “but we’re going to see this through until (Election Day.”) Of Grossman’s departure, Rodgers said, “I like Armand, but this is good news for me.” Now I’m the only FAU candidate in the race.” Grossman is an FAU grad and former trustee.
The Elad factor
Those anti-Grossman mailers came from a Tampa-based election communications organization (ECO), which meant that those who got the mailers didn’t know that they had come from Chapman. Mailers from a similar ECO were critical in helping Delray Beach City Commissioner Al Jacquet defeat challenger Chris Davey a year ago.
I keep hearing that Elad Properties, which wants to build New Mizner on the Green, will spend money in the Boca council race. New Mizner on the Green is the four-tower condo project Broward-based Elad wants to build to replace Mizner on the Green, the rental complex just east of Royal Palm Place. The towers would be roughly 200 feet higher than rules allow for that location.
Elad had representatives at Boca polling places for the November election. The company sent a mailer to city residents seeking support for the project, noting that the company owns five apartment complexes in the city, and followed that up with a telephone poll. That mailer was labeled as coming from Elad.
Because Elad wants such a large deviation from the rules, a council member at this point would have to propose an amendment to the downtown plan for the council to consider the project. William Shewalter, Elad’s senior executive officer, donated $1,000—the maximum—to Weinroth, who after paying expenses will donate his now-unneeded contributions to charities.
Despite the contribution, Weinroth on Wednesday affirmed to me his opposition to New Mizner on the Green. It will be interesting to see if, and how, Elad gets involved in the remaining council election.
Cuba news
It’s been a big week for Cuba-related politics.
In First Lady Michelle Obama’s box at the State of the Union Address was Alan Gross, the United States Agency for International Development contractor whom the Cuban government imprisoned in 2009 for allegedly spying by trying to set up Internet connections in a country that restricts such access. Cuba released Gross last month, at which time President Obama announced a normalization of relations between the countries after more than 50 years.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American, responded by having as his guest Rosa Maria Paya Acevedo. Her father, a Cuban dissident, died in a 2012 car crash that Rubio and others believe was a government-arranged murder. House Speaker John Boehner also invited two dissidents to show his disapproval of Obama’s opening to Cuba.
On Wednesday, the highest-level talks between American and Cuban officials since the late 1970s took place in Havana. The talks continue today on the issue of re-establishing embassies.
Some Cuban-Americans in South Florida never will support any change as long as a Castro rules Cuba and the many legal claims against Cuba remain. But it remains ironic that in the name of promoting freedom in Cuba the United States has forbidden Americans from traveling to Cuba except under rules that the Obama administration began easing last week, when Cuba released 53 political prisoners. Their release was a condition of the agreement Obama announced last month.
The New York Times just listed Cuba second among its 52 Places to Visit in 2015. Soon, South Floridians may be able to take that trip without asking the government’s permission or going through a third country.
Delray’s never-ending trash issue
A wrinkle developed Tuesday night as the Delray Beach City Commission debated a new trash-hauling contract.
A resident suggested, based on some emails, that one of the five bidders may have violated the “cone of silence.” The term—from the 1960s comedy “Get Smart”—applies to the period after the city asks for bids on a contract. All questions for the companies are supposed to have been answered, and the only contact bidders may have is with the city’s purchasing director. It’s designed to prevent last-minute lobbying.
Delray Beach City Attorney Noel Pfeffer told me Wednesday that he in the “early stages” of reviewing the emails, which “potentially raise cone of silence questions.” One problem, Pfeffer said, is that “I have a string of (email) threads. I don’t have context.” He hopes to have a recommendation for the next meeting on Feb. 3, when the commission also is supposed to discuss the Land Development Regulations for the Central Business District.
If there was a violation, any contract could be “voidable,” Pfeffer said. A selection committee ranked Waste Management first among the five bidders even though the company wasn’t the lowest bidder.
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You can email Randy Schultz at randy@bocamag.com
For more City Watch blogs, click here.About the Author
Randy Schultz was born in Hartford, Conn., and graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1974. He has lived in South Florida since then, and in Boca Raton since 1985. Schultz spent nearly 40 years in daily journalism at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, most recently as editorial page editor at the Post. His wife, Shelley, is director of The Learning Network at Pine Crest School. His son, an attorney, and daughter-in-law and three grandchildren also live in Boca Raton. His daughter is a veterinarian who lives in Baltimore.
