On Dec. 8, state Sen. Mack Bernard stood before the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee in Tallahassee and asked that the state examine the finances of the Delray Beach Downtown Development Authority (DDA).
One might have asked why. Bernard doesn’t represent Delray Beach. His district goes no farther south than Boynton Beach. The DDA takes no state money. Its roughly $2 million budget comes almost entirely from a tax on property within the DDA boundaries.
And there has been no widespread public outcry from businesses that the DDA is failing to market Delray Beach, which is the agency’s stated mission.
Yet Bernard told the committee that Mayor Tom Carney had “raised some concerns” about DDA spending. True enough. Carney has been after the agency since last summer, when he sat on the board as a non-voting member. He also requested financial documents. Carney’s September commentary in the South Florida Sun Sentinel was headlined, “Delray’s DDA needs transparency, fiscal responsibility.” Carney, Bernard said, believed that it was “important to do an audit.”
So, the committee voted unanimously for state auditors to review a local agency, even after no one from Delray Beach spoke in favor. The audit will examine the DDA’s entire budget. A city audit last fall reviewed only the $700,000 the city gives the DDA to operate parts of Old School Square.
DDA Board Chair James Knight told the committee that the audit request could be aimed at “potentially doing away” with the agency after 54 years. Bernard tipped his hand when he said, “The state created this monster.” The Legislature must approve all special taxing districts.
One committee member asked Knight whether, after all this time, it made sense to abolish the DDA. Knight responded that he might agree if there were not “15 acres of vacant property” within the DDA, most it west of Swinton Avenue.
Knight also noted that, as a tenant, he pays into the DDA’s budget through his rent payments. Speaking of the agency’s marketing work, Knight said businesses owners are “getting a good return on our investments.” Then there’s the question of who would take over the DDA’s functions.
Since starting this blog 12 years ago, I’ve heard—usually privately—that DDA Executive Director Laura Simon and her staff can be too defensive. I’ve heard that residents—who pay roughly 25% of the taxes—can feel overlooked. I’ve heard that owners of professional service businesses sometimes question the DDA’s focus on events that draw visitors to hotels and restaurants but don’t help them.
If these are legitimate complaints, open dialogue might address them. Delray Beach being Delray Beach, however, the DDA fight seems more about politics than substance.
Carney has positioned himself as the taxpayers’ advocate. Two years ago, he forced through an unrealistically low property tax rate to keep bills the same for a year. The rate had to go back up for this year. Similarly, he has claimed that the partial DDA audit revealed enough to justify the state audit.
Among members of the city commission, though, Carney is alone in that sentiment. Commissioners Juli Casale and Thomas Markert have been the most vocal in pushing back. Last week, with Carney absent because of illness, Markert held nothing back.
“My blood pressure is going to go way up,” Markert said at one point. Carney, Markert said, is making “an unwarranted attack” on the DDA, which is “performing at the highest level.” And now, “It’s been elevated to the friggin’ state?”
The city audit, Markert said, revealed “nothing malicious.” Simon promised to implement the recommendations. Markert again questioned Carney’s motivation. “I am disgusted over this.” He promised to be “like a dog with a bone” to get answers.
Interestingly, Delray Beach shows why these legislative ambushes usually don’t work.
In 2023, two state representatives got the committee to approve an audit of the city’s former contract to provide fire-rescue services to Highland Beach. FL Rep. Peggy Gossett-Seidman, who still sits on the committee, and FL Rep. Mike Caruso surely hoped the review would show that Delray Beach owed Highland Beach money; Gossett-Seidman represents Highland Beach.
Instead, the audit showed that Highland Beach owed Delray Beach $2.2 million. The city is still negotiating over the final payment. And in 2013, another state senator who didn’t represent Delray Beach secured a state audit of the community redevelopment agency. The senator had links to a law firm that wanted space that went to Arts Garage.
Delray Beach being Delray Beach, political proxies are on the case. The anonymous—but always pro-Casale— Delray Gazette criticized Carney, citing a Coastal Star article that traced Carney’s attacks on the DDA to former city and county commissioner Mary McCarty and political operative Andre Fladell. The anonymous—but reliably pro-Carney—Delray Guzette responded that the mayor’s critics were trying to preserve the unacceptable “DDA status quo.”
The commission meets next Tuesday. If Carney and Markert are present, the battle likely will resume.
Delray Beach commissioners no closer to filling vacant seat
Speaking of Delray Beach politics, the commission took no action last week on filling Rob Long’s seat until it turns over at the March 10 election. Markert said the commission would be “remiss” by leaving the seat open for another two months.
Markert could fix that by switching his vote and agreeing with Carney and Commissioner Angela Burns to name Yvonne Odom, a Delray Beach civic icon who integrated Seacrest High School in 1961. With Carney presumably present, the commission will try to break the deadlock next week. Markert and Casale supported historic preservation advocate and Casale ally Price Patton on the first vote last month.
Boca Raton goes on the defensive against home rule attacks
Boca Raton’s top priority for the annual legislative session that begins today is opposition to “defunding” of services through elimination of the property tax.
Several Republican proposals in the GOP-dominated Legislature seek to end or reduce the property tax, which is the main source of local government revenue. All would have to go before the voters in November as constitutional amendments.
Whether any make it is an open question. As happened last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the House are at odds. I’m told that the most draconian plan—to eliminate the tax entirely—won’t be heard. But the Republicans have made property taxes their affordability issue for the 2026 election, so predictions at this point are risky.
Legislators also will discuss whether to expand on Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo’s plan to eliminate childhood vaccination requirements for schools. Some are in Department of Health rules, but others are in state law. Vaccination rates already have dropped to levels below what public health experts recommend for herd immunity.
After a state appeals court struck down the ban on open carry of firearms, Boca Raton and others want the Legislature to clarify that people can’t bring guns to public meetings. Other bills seek to amend the stealth bill that would prohibit cities and counties from toughening rebuilding requirements after hurricanes. Cities also oppose the attempt to raise limits on payments for some insurance claims.
House bills to require loyalty oaths of teachers and university professors now have Senate companion legislation. So does the House bill to require all state colleges to rename roads for Charlie Kirk, the late right-wing political operative.
The most important political fight will come when DeSantis tries to redraw congressional maps to add Republican seats to a delegation that already has 20 GOP members to eight Democrats. Local Democrats Lois Frankel and Jared Moskowitz would be likely targets. Democrats plan to argue that the attempt violates the Florida Fair Districts law.
In budget matters, Boca Raton wants a $650,000 fire-rescue vehicle for incidents at the airport and $200,000 for a “shared-use path” along A1A at the bridge over the inlet. The city calls the project “essential to eliminate a high-priority, high-risk gap in Florida’s SUN Trail Network and the East Coast Greenway (ECG).” It would eliminate a “dangerous pinch point that fails to meet modern standards for pedestrian and bicycle safety.”
I’ll have more as the session progresses.
Delray Beach developer charged with possession of child pornography
Palm Beach County prosecutors have filed formal child pornography charges against Delray Beach businessman and longtime civic activist Scott Porten.
The language for all 11 counts is the same. Between Sept. 16 and Dec. 8 of last year, Porten allegedly “did, on one or more occasions unlawfully and knowingly possess, control or intentionally view a photograph, motion picture, exhibition, show, representation, image, data, computer depiction, or other presentation which, in whole or part (he) knew to include any sexual conduct by a child, and possessed 10 or more images of any form of child pornography, and the content of at least one image contained sexual battery involving a child or was a movie involving a child. . .”
Each charge is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Porten’s arraignment is set for Thursday.
Trial date set for alleged Boca Bash Strangler
In other court news, a judge has set a March 9 trial for the man accused of strangling his girlfriend during Boca Bash 2022.
Cole Preston Goldberg faces three charges—felony counts of attempted second-degree murder and domestic battery by strangulation—and a misdemeanor battery count. His first trial ended in a mistrial.
