Delray Beach City Commission Budget Discussions
No item jumped out more last week during the Delray Beach City Commission’s budget discussion than this one:
The Community Redevelopment Agency’s boundaries include 17 percent of the city. From within those boundaries, however, come 37 percent of calls to the police department.
City Manager Don Cooper proposes adding four officers in next year’s budget, which bring the sworn officer total to 160. The CRA would pay for two of those officers, who would be assigned to the Clean & Safe force that patrols what Delray calls the “entertainment district” – from Interstate 95 to A1A. According to Police Chief Jeffrey Goldman, the CRA then would be paying for 12 officers in all.
Fire Chief Neal DeJesus is asking for eight more paramedics, primarily to deal with Delray Beach’s heroin epidemic that has caused overdoses to spike. Many of those overdoses also happen within the CRA. The commission wants to hear the comparable number for percentage of calls in that area.
Later in the discussion, Community Improvement Department Director Michael Coleman laid out the progress his department has made on neighborhood appearance and code enforcement. Again, commissioners noted that this was a department directing a large share of its time and resources to within the CRA. Commissioners asked again about all the needs outside the CRA that remain unaddressed. Revenue from rising property values must stay with the CRA.
The commission’s collective question to Cooper was: Doesn’t the CRA finally get it? Cooper responded that while he has felt “pushback” on budget matters, he didn’t call it “opposition.” Instead, Cooper said he believes that CRA board members “don’t understand.”
Referring to Coleman’s presentation and what he believes is the need for the CRA to contribute more toward the city’s budget, Mayor Cary Glickstein said, “I don’t think anything could drive it home more to the CRA.”
At 5 p.m. this afternoon, the city commission and the CRA board will hold their latest joint meeting. The stated subject is the design of Old School Square. With the city and the CRA starting budget years on Oct. 1, however, much discussion on spending remains.
The likely scenario for collaboration remains neighborhood infrastructure upgrades that are part of the city’s estimated $250 million capital improvement plan. Cooper wants to start that work in Osceola Park. If the CRA can help with that work, the city could shift money to outside of the CRA.
CRA Director Jeff Costello told me Monday that the budget talks are “ongoing.” The topic will come up at the CRA’s meeting on Thursday.
What’s the Status with Delray’s Downtown Civic Hub?
At Tuesday’s city-CRA meeting, Old School Square Director Rob Steele will make a presentation showing where things stand with respect to design work on Delray Beach’s downtown civic hub.
A year ago, commissioners believed that plans for Old School Square – which includes the Pavilion, the Cornell Art Museum, the Crest Theater the Fieldhouse and the Creative Arts School — had become grandiose. Consultants were touting a dramatic redesign and supplying photos of European cities. Old School Square leases the property from the city, which maintains the property. Commissioners saw expensive extravagance.
Steele’s presentation states that Old School Square is “evolving” into an “arts an entertainment park.” Steele notes that Old School Square is the top venue in Palm Beach County, drawing more visitors than the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts. One priority of the Old School Square board is to increase revenue and thus produce “financial stability.” Example: Build a cover for the Pavilion, so it can host more events in any weather.
Yet the community also wants Old School Square to welcome residents, not just visitors. One conclusion from four public meetings is that Old School Square needs to become more like a park – more trees, more seating and better landscaping.
CRA Director Jeff Costello said he and City Manager Don Cooper will be seeking “direction” after Steele’s presentation. I will have more in my Thursday post.
All Aboard Florida’s Brightline
As work to accommodate All Aboard Florida’s Brightline passenger service continues, cities along the Florida East Coast Railway tracks are working to complete agreements with All Aboard Florida and its parent company, Florida East Coast Industries.
The railroad was here first – arriving in 1895, 30 years before Boca Raton became a city and 16 years before Delray Beach incorporated. Florida East Coast Industries owns the right-of-way. Normally, cities pay for improvements to the crossings. All Aboard Florida, though, is paying for the double-tracking and for safety improvements that will turn the corridor from Boca Raton to West Palm Beach into a “quiet zone” within which trains won’t have to blow their horns.
At its Aug. 9 meeting, the Boca Raton City Council was to discuss a pair of agreements with All Aboard Florida. City administrators pulled the items, but Assistant City Manager Michael Woika said the issues were technical, not major.
With one agreement, Woika said, the city wanted to make doubly sure that the company would pay for the double-tracking. “We just wanted to get that in writing.” The other agreement concerns the two grade crossings – at Northwest 28th Street and Southwest 18th Street – where city traffic lights go on the company’s structures. Boca Raton is the only city in Palm Beach County to operate its own traffic lights.
Woika expects both agreements to be back before the council soon. The problem of the moment, he said, is grade closings for the work to proceed. The crossing at Palmetto Park Road is closed all week.
On tonight’s Delray Beach City Commission meeting agenda is a crossing agreement between Delray and All Aboard Florida. It covers the cost to maintain the crossings. The company does the work, and the city reimburses.
According to the backup material, Delray Beach’s annual cost for maintenance at the nine crossings would increase from about $30,000 to about $59,000. Roughly 75 percent of the increase would be for what City Manager Don Cooper calls “the additional equipment required for quiet zones.” Delray Beach residents who live near the tracks probably would consider $29,000 a great deal for not having to hear train horns. All Aboard Florida will present issues for cities, but noise won’t be one of them.
Delray Event Debate
Also at tonight’s Delray commission meeting is something for both sides of the special event debate.
For the commission, which has pledged to reduce the number of downtown events and not have the city continue to subsidize them, there’s final approval of the new policy. It includes an 87-page guide for those wishing to throw everything from a parade to a block party to Delray Affair – down to the type of banner allowed.
For the organizers, there’s a phase-in over three years to the city recovering what officials calculate is the full cost to Delray Beach of hosting the event. City staffers have broken down the cost per employee per hour. City Manager Don Cooper is recommending the phase-in because the city hasn’t been collecting the full cost anyway. Even at a phase-in rate, Delray Beach still would collect more.
As a hypothetical, an event that carried a $5,000 cost but would be $5,999 at full cost would rise to $5,333, then to $5,666 and then to $5,999.
Festival Management Group, which already has moved Garlic Fest to John Prince Park and cancelled the Wine and Seafood Festival, had complained about the potential cost increases. The company claimed that the city’s bill for Delray Affair could rise from $49,415 to $111,235 for next year’s event.
Cooper said the estimate was based on last year’s event. Because “opportunities for cost reduction will occur once an application is received, I would expect that to drop, depending on their application.”
Lynn University to Get a New Student Center
Not surprisingly, Lynn University easily passed its first review last week for the planned new student center.
Lynn wants to replace its one-story facility with a three-story project that officials envision as the focal point of the 115-acre campus. The project would not generate any additional traffic, and Lynn briefed its neighbors in Boca Bath & Tennis and Timbercreek. The council last amended Lynn’s master plan in 2010, and this project was a key part of the new plan.
Not one of the six Planning and Zoning Board members present – Glenn Gromann was absent – even had a question. They voted unanimously to recommend city council approval, which should come just as easily.
Boca Mayor Susan Haynie Becomes President of the Florida League of Cities
At the Diplomat Hotel on Saturday, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater swore in Boca Raton Mayor Susan Haynie as president of the Florida League of Cities. She will serve a one-year term. Haynie said she asked Atwater to officiate because he’s a longtime friend.
Haynie said he priorities would be public safety, including such threats as sober homes, the Zika virus and gun violence.
