Delray Beach and Old School Square Center for the Arts have reached a settlement. The city commission will approve it at today’s meeting.
Under the agreement, the two sides will drop their respective lawsuits. Old School Square sued after the commission in August 2021 ended the group’s lease of the eponymous downtown arts complex. The city countersued, alleging, among other things, that Old School Square illegally took items from the complex. The city is rescinding that charge. Each side will pay its own legal fees.
Based on my conservations Monday, the results of last month’s election prompted the settlement offer last week from Old School Square. Commissioner Juli Casale, who voted with Mayor Shelly Petrolia and Commissioner Shirley Johnson to evict Old School Square, lost to Rob Long. He opposed the termination. Angela Burns, who also opposed the termination, defeated Angie Gray to succeed the term-limited Johnson. Gray had supported the termination. Holdover commissioners Ryan Boylston and Adam Frankel opposed it.
Marko Cerenko is Old School Square’s attorney. “The temperament of the new commission,” he said, “is much different.” Old School Square board members “felt that now their time and resources would be better spent on what they had done before than on suing the city.”
Board member Jim Chard, a former city commissioner, believes that the settlement will “help Old School Square get its reputation back.” There could be an expectation that the group can become involved again with Old School Square under management by the Downtown Development Authority. But there is nothing specific, Chard said, about “next steps.” Scott Porten said of his fellow board members, “We would just like to have a seat at the table.”
With the settlement, residents never will know if the conspiracy that Old School Square alleged ever happened. The group’s contract was not on the agenda for that Aug. 10, 2021 meeting. In the lawsuit, Old School Square charged that a former board chairman and executive director worked secretly with commissioners on that ambush.
Cerenko acknowledged that proving those allegations was a very high bar. Depositions were in their early stages. The city always denied the allegations.
City Attorney Lynn Gelin made the settlement a priority before she went on vacation this week. She asked the new commission to discuss it privately last Friday. Petrolia said she was unavailable and asked whether Gelin simply could send a subordinate to a meeting this week.
Gelin pushed back. So the meeting happened without Petrolia. Afterward, the four commissioners—all of whom Petrolia worked to defeat—expressed the hope that Old School Square board members could have some role in the future of the complex that the group created. Long, Boylston and Frankel said Monday that they would like to see the commission soon discuss those “next steps.”
Petrolia’s last move
Petrolia has denied that she instigated Old School Square’s termination. Skeptics again will question that denial after what happened last week.
On Tuesday, the outgoing commission held its last meeting, mostly to discuss the idea of financing a renovation of the golf course by developing part of it. Other topics were on the agenda. Old School Square was not. Until Petrolia said it was.
As the meeting ended, Petrolia proposed a change in the contract for the DDA to operate Old School Square. She did so, the mayor said, because of talk that the new commissioners—to be sworn in three days later—want to “change that up.” That prospect, Petrolia said, “kept me up at night.”
The initial contract with the DDA runs through Sept. 30, 2024. Petrolia asked the commission to remove the clause that allowed the commission to end the contract without cause by giving six months’ notice. Petrolia, Casale and Johnson invoked that clause to fire Old School Square. As noted above, they did so without the item being on the agenda.
“I don’t want to see (the DDA) capped at the knees,” Petrolia said. Citing last week’s Savor The Avenue event, which is a DDA (and Boca and Delray magazines) event, Petrolia again forecast great things for Old School Square under the agency’s management.
Boylston joined Petrolia, Casale and Johnson in voting for the change. “I would never do to the DDA what they did to Old School Square,” Boylston said. He added that the city still could fire the DDA for cause, “but I don’t see that happening.”
Frankel opposed the change because “I’ve voted against all these things that weren’t on the agenda.” The action seemed like Petrolia’s last move while she still had allies on the commission.
2500 North Ocean Boulevard
Correction: I wrote last week about the federal court ruling against Boca Raton in the dispute over a proposed house at 2500 North Ocean Boulevard. In writing that item, I conflated issues from a similar case related to the adjoining property at 2600 North Ocean.
Natural Lands LLC, which owns the 2500 property, sued in federal court over the city’s denial of a permit to allow construction of the house. Last month, the judge ruled that Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer, council member Monica Mayotte and former council member Andrea O’Rourke had prejudiced themselves before voting to deny the permit. U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith said all three should have recused themselves.
Azure Development, which owns the 2600 property, went to state court after the council denied a variance for a duplex on that vacant lot. A three-judge panel found that Mayotte and O’Rourke should have recused themselves because of similarly prejudicial comments before the vote. A state appeals court upheld that ruling.
Both votes were quasi-judicial proceedings, meaning that they are held much like court hearings. Under quasi-judicial rules, council members must not indicate beforehand how they intend to vote.
Singer, Mayotte and O’Rourke made those comments after public opposition to building on both sites. Yet because of those comments, Boca Raton had to lay out money for legal bills, and the lots may be developed.
Last week, City Attorney Diana Frieser called an executive session of the council to discuss the Natural Lands lawsuit. The council must decide whether to appeal Smith’s ruling or begin working to process Natural Lands’ application.
Diamond Interchange update
Boca Raton’s diverging diamond interchange at Glades Road and Interstate 95 opened Monday. The opening—with all lanes open in both directions—came a month earlier than the Florida Department of Transportation’s original prediction.
Workshop on Menin project
Delray Beach’s new commission will hold a workshop meeting today at 3:30 p.m. to discuss a request from Menin Development.
The company wants to build a high-end condo project in Pineapple Grove just north of The Ray Hotel, which Menin owns. Current rules require such projects to have retail use on the ground floor.
In a letter to the city, Menin President Jordana Jarjura cited the abundance of retail near the site and the city’s “housing shortage.” If commissioners agree to hear it, the request would come before them in another workshop meeting next month.
Delray vs. Boca changing of the guard
You could tell much about the politics of Boca Raton and Delray Beach by watching last week’s ceremonies that amounted to transitions of power.
Boca Raton’s was typically low-key. Outgoing council member Andrea O’Rourke delivered remarks. So did new members Fran Nachlas and Mark Wigder and Singer, who started his second and final full, three-year term. Though Wigder is new, his colleagues chose him to be chairman of the community redevelopment agency and run the CRA meetings.
In Delray Beach, however, there was a party mood. Supporters of newly elected Burns and Long packed the commission chambers and cheered. Their elections left Petrolia politically isolated. Frankel hoped for more “civility.” New faces in Boca Raton aren’t signs of much change. All three races were uncontested. New faces in Delray are signs of much change, because that’s what the election was about.
