At great cost, the Boca Raton City Council wants to force out City Attorney Diana Frieser.
On the agenda for Tuesday’s council meeting is a “separation of employment agreement” with the woman who has been city attorney since 1999. If she and the council accept it, Frieser will collect almost $548,000.
Why so much? During the aftermath of the 2008-2009 financial crisis, the council at the time could not give raises to Frieser and then-City Manager Leif Ahnell. So, in 2011, the council approved new contracts that, effective June 28, 2016, said that if either was fired or “forced to resign,” they would receive one year’s salary and benefits.
Ahnell retired at the end of last year. Frieser already had entered the state retirement program and had a mandatory retirement date of next Aug. 31. Under the agreement, she would leave on Aug. 31 of this year.
The council approved that contract two days before a state law kicked in limiting severance payments to 20 weeks of salary. In 2014, a Boca Raton resident filed a complaint with the Palm Beach County Commission on Ethics. The complaint alleged that Frieser drew up the contract and thus had a conflict of interest. The commission ruled that the statute of limitations to file the complaint had expired.
Last month, for the first time in anyone’s memory, Frieser faced questions during her annual evaluation. Mayor Scott Singer and Councilman Andy Thomson raised issues. There was to be a follow-up discussion. Instead, there’s the agreement.
I’ll have much more on Tuesday.
Congressional race funding updates
Two Republicans running in local congressional races are putting a lot of skin in the game.
According to campaign finance reports for the three months ending June 30, former Boca Raton City Councilman and County Commissioner Robert Weinroth has loaned himself $150,000. Weinroth faces five other Republicans in the Aug. 20 primary to challenge District 23 incumbent, U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz.
Weinroth’s total of nearly $350,000 is second to Carla Spalding, who has raised roughly $660,000 and has also spent almost all that money. Joe Kaufman is next with $104,000, followed by Darlene Cerezo Swafford ($76,000), Joe Thelusca ($71,000) and Gary Barve ($23,000).
Notably, though, Weinroth is the only candidate to get money from WinRed, the Republican National Committee’s fundraising platform. WinRed has donated $42,000.
GOP officials thus must believe that Weinroth has the best chance to defeat Moskowitz. The decision makes sense, given Weinroth’s name recognition in the district that includes Boca Raton, West Boca and portions of Broward County.
Among Weinroth’s local contributors are philanthropist Richard Schmidt, developers Jamie Danburg, Robert D’Angelo and Mark Butters, and former Boca Raton Police Chief Andrew Scott. All gave $1,000. Another $1,000 came from architect Jorge Garcia, whose firm designs many development projects in Boca Raton.
The former centrist Democrat also has morphed easily into a right-wing Republican. Example: Weinroth said he would “fight to revoke Biden’s wayward gender rules” that are “endangering our children as part of some leftist experiment.”
Moskowitz has raised $1.51 million. His largest contributors continue to be the American Israel Public Affairs Committee ($114,000) and ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising platform that the Republicans copied. ActBlue has given Moskowitz $161,000.
Among Republicans running to challenge Democrat Lois Frankel in District 22, Dan Franzese has loaned his campaign $650,000 out of an overall total of $861,000 in contributions. That places Franzese ahead of Andrew Gutmann ($725,000) and Deborah Adeimy ($171,000). District 22 includes Delray Beach, West Delray and areas north to West Palm Beach.
Here again, however, the party is not backing the candidate with the most money. Adeimy has received $84,000 from WinRed. She also received $1,000 from the police union.
Meanwhile, Frankel has raised $1.4 million. Like Moskowitz, Frankel’s biggest donors are AIPAC and ActBlue. She has $101,000 from AIPAC and $61,000 from ActBlue. Frankel and Moskowitz also have received money from several labor unions.
For Republicans, the crowded primaries especially matter because Florida has abolished runoffs in partisan elections. Whoever gets the most votes—not necessarily a majority—will advance to the general election in November.
Fired Delray fire chief suing city
As expected, former Delray Beach Fire Chief Keith Tomey has sued the city, claiming that City Manager Terrence Moore wrongly fired him two months ago.
Tomey seeks whistleblower status. He restates his accusation of sexual harassment by Moore and argues that he was fired for revealing it. Delray Beach sought an independent investigation, which found that the accusation was “unsubstantiated.”
In the termination letter, Moore stated that Tomey had violated policy on several occasions, most notably by taking a unit of service so firefighters could play in a charity softball game. Moore also said the officers who played were paid as if they had been on duty.
According to the court schedule, a trial could take place in February 2026. The city has not filed its response.
Delray commission removes Benson from DDA board
Four weeks after appointing her, the Delray Beach City Commission removed Mavis Benson from the board of the Downtown Development Authority (DDA).
At last week’s meeting, the commission agreed to reconsider the appointment. At Tuesday’s meeting, the commission rescinded it. Mayor Tom Carney and Commissioners Angela Burns and Rob Long voted yes. Commissioners Thomas Markert, who had nominated Benson, and Juli Casale voted no.
The issue had been whether Benson had a valid business address. That problem led to the removal in April of Rick Burgess. Casale had called for his removal.
With Benson, Casale tried to argue that she was to fill an at-large position, which would have made the tax qualification issue moot. City Attorney Lynn Gelin said, “I don’t know that I agree.” Casale kept on until Carney raised the other, more problematic issue: There’s no record of Benson owning the Atlantic Avenue gallery that lists her as an owner.
Markert must not have been prepared for defeat. Asked to choose another nominee, he said something about needing to do “more homework” and deferred to the next meeting. Roughly two dozen people had applied.
Cities review their budgets
Delray Beach commissioners held another two-hour budget discussion before Tuesday’s regular meeting. I’ll have more about that next week.
In Boca Raton, city council members will hold their budget workshop on Monday. New City Manager George Brown has proposed an operating budget of $243 million, an increase of $21 million from the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.
Almost two-third of the increase is for higher salaries and pension contributions. Higher fire and police pension contributions alone are about $5 million, at a time when the financial markets are at record highs.
Another $1.5 million would be for new programs, with $932,000 for new staff positions. Brown proposes a property tax rate that is almost identical to the current one. Property owners would pay more because of higher values. The fire fee of $155 would stay the same.
I’ll have more after the meeting.
Luxury housing project under review by Boca Raton
On the agenda for tonight’s Boca Raton Planning and Zoning Board is a proposal for a 28-unit luxury residential project that would replace a vacant bank building at 280 E. Palmetto Park Road.
The project would be nine stories tall, with a maximum height of 155 feet. The developer would build a new sidewalk and make other street improvements. The land sold in May 2023 for $9.8 million. It had fetched $1.86 million in March 2000.
City planners recommend approval. The project meets all conditions of the law governing downtown redevelopment.
