Tennis anyone?
The Delray Beach Open starts on Feb. 12, but the most important match of this year’s pro tennis tournament may take place next Wednesday.
City Attorney Noel Pfeffer will meet with Mark Baron. He’s president of Match Point, Inc., which operates the Association of Tennis Professionals tournament and the concurrent ATP Champions Tour event under a contract with the city. Unless Pfeffer hears what he said in an interview are “new and different facts,” the city likely will go to court seeking to void the contract.
If this seems like Waste Management all over again—that’s because it mostly is. Delray successfully challenged the city commission’s vote in 2012 to extend Waste Management’s trash-hauling contract without competitive bidding. After the city sought bids, the new contract—which Waste Management since has acquired from another company—saved residents millions.
The decision at issue in the tennis case is the commission’s approval in 2005 of a 25-year contract with Match Point to operate and promote these tournaments. Under the agreement, which has been amended five times, the city paid the company roughly $920,000 the first year, but the deal contains annual increases. Baron told me that the payment would be roughly $1.5 million this year.
Nothing in the available record indicates that the city put out the contract for bidding. City rules call for bids on any contract exceeding $15,000 per year, with certain exemptions that do not apply to the tennis contract.
Delray Beach asked for an analysis from Jamie Cole, the lawyer who recommended in 2013 that the city challenge the trash contract. “Applicable Florida case law,” Cole wrote in his 11-page memo, “suggests that there is a considerable chance that a court would declare the Agreement, as amended, void.”
Baron said he would tell Pfeffer that the 2005 contract was not new: “We already had a contract.” He also will argue that “no other ATP event could come” to Delray Beach if his company wasn’t promoting it. “We have exclusivity.”
Indeed, Baron’s involvement with pro tennis promotion in Delray dates to 1999. Based on the Waste Management case, however, that may not matter. It didn’t matter that the trash contract was an extension, not a new deal. Approval of any contract in Delray Beach worth more than $15,000, Cole said, requires competitive bidding.
Cole also concluded that Baron would have trouble arguing that the city was going back on its word by trying to end the contract. “MatchPoint,” Cole wrote, “was responsible to determine the authority of a municipality, and of its officers, to enter into the contemplated contract. Thus, MatchPoint was on notice that the City did not have the power to enter into the Agreement.”
For the city commission, which directed Pfeffer to litigate if he doesn’t find those “new and different facts,” the question is whether Delray Beach is getting its money’s worth. In an interview, Mayor Cary Glickstein said, “I think the city got sold a bill of goods” in 2005. Baron said studies show that the tournaments bring significant economic benefits to Delray Beach.
Commissioner Shelly Petrolia questions the annual rate of increase, which would make this roughly a $40 million contract by 2030. She also points out that Match Point got permission from the city in 2013 to reduce the required number of players in the Champions event from eight players to six players. That change applies for the duration of the contract.
Petrolia and Glickstein were part of that unanimous vote. In its report for the meeting agenda, staff noted the commission’s “concerns” about whether the reduction would hurt the tournament. The staff concluded that attendance for both events had dropped in 2013, decreasing the economic benefit by nearly 15 percent. Staff, however, attributed the decline mostly to rain and competition from the current Honda Classic golf tournament.
Each of those five amendments got unanimous approval. Commission sentiment clearly has shifted. If the city can void the contract, don’t be surprised if the commission is content to lose the tournament and spend the money on something else.
Voters will decide on council salaries
Now that the Boca Raton City Council has voted to let voters decide on what would be a big raise, let’s be clear about what is involved.
First, despite comments by residents and council members, this is not about a higher salary attracting more people to run for office. If voters reject the increase, as they have twice before in the last decade-plus, the job would be no less appealing. Anyone who wants to run solely because of the salary would not be a good mayor or council member. Those who have day jobs or run businesses yet truly want to serve still would make that financial sacrifice.
Second, some speakers at Tuesday night’s council meeting contended that Boca should hold the vote not during this year’s August statewide primary but next March during city elections. That makes no sense. An issue like this deserves the highest possible turnout. By far, that would be during the November general election in a presidential year. Second-highest is the statewide primary during a presidential year. Turnout for city elections is the lowest, even in “big” years.
In fact, this is about whether Boca Raton residents want to raise salaries that have stayed the same for 32 years and make them commensurate with the work of the city’s elected officials. As Mayor Susan Haynie noted, she and her colleagues also serve on other boards that deal with issues affecting the city, such as the Palm Beach Metropolitan Planning Organization, which sets the county’s transportation priorities. Neighborhood groups want council members at their events.
Done right, the job justifies much more than the current $9,000 for the mayor and $7,200 for council members, along with car allowances and health insurance. State legislators, who also are considered part-time employees, receive similar benefits.
Scott Singer was the only one to vote against putting the proposal on the ballot. He made the fanciful argument that the proposal should reach the ballot through a citizen petition drive. One resident, whom the council has displeased with votes on development, said current members should get the raise only after standing again for election. That would apply only if council members were voting on the raise itself.
For those who suspect that council members might campaign for their raise, they can’t. The city only can provide information about the proposal.
City council and airport board
With relations seemingly improved between the Boca council and the Boca Raton Airport Authority, the council soon will appoint a supermajority of the airport board.
The council gets five of the seven board appointments. The county commission gets the other two. According to the city attorney’s office, a re-reading of the legislation that created the authority shows that board members’ two-year terms are not staggered as previously thought. The council must make all its appointments in even-numbered years; the county commission must make its appointments in odd-numbered years. Terms for the five council appointees expire at the end of May.
One issue is who can serve. Last year, after a possible conflict arose involving one board member, the city attorney’s office asked the Florida Ethics Commission for an opinion about board qualifications, to help guide the council. Example: Would employment at Boomer’s or Cinemark or any other company that leases airport land disqualify someone. What about pilots who use the airport? During Tuesday’s meeting, City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser told council members that the commission doesn’t intend to provide that guidance.
Councilman Robert Weinroth wanted the city to seek a legal opinion from another source, but his colleagues rejected that idea. Mayor Haynie said the council would deal with any complaints if they come, as one did when the council named Weinroth and Deputy City Manager George Brown to the board last year.
Those appointments came amid council complaints about lack of communication from the airport authority. Weinroth, who resigned from the airport board this month, told me Wednesday that two good things have happened. Airport Director Clara Bennett “has made a concerted effort” to inform the council about developments. The airport board also eliminated from its bylaws language that Bennett said “might have made people think they couldn’t exchange information because of some obscure rule.” Bennett also acknowledged that she was “relatively new” to the job last summer.
One measure of progress will be whether the council reappoints Brown to the board. His and Weinroth’s appointments started speculation that the council was seeking to take over the airport. Based on recent developments, though, tension is down. Cooperation is up.
New customs facility update
Bennett also said that while the authority endured a slight delay in preparations to issue the construction contract, she expects the airport’s new customs facility to be completed by April of next year.
Gladiator girl
Not many 15-year-olds get raves during a governor’s State of the State Address. Rachel Zeitz is not your average 15-year-old.
Gov. Rick Scott cited the Boca Raton teenager this month when he opened the legislative session. He talked about her company, Gladiator Lacrosse. He didn’t mention— and probably didn’t need to—that Rachel comes from entrepreneurial stock. Her father is Sam Zeitz, founder and CEO of TouchSuite, the Boca-based financial tech firm.
Sam Zeitz told me that as a seventh-grader his daughter enrolled in the Greater Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce’s program for aspiring entrepreneurs. The program was three hours a week for 33 weeks. “It’s like a crash MBA class,” Sam Zeitz said. Rachel, a sophomore who plays on the Pine Crest School lacrosse team, started her company out of frustration with the quality of backyard lacrosse equipment. She worked on specs for higher-quality products, got investment capital and sold $1 million worth of gear. Her line now includes nine products.
Sam Zeitz is justifiably proud of his daughter’s success, and also sees the practical side. “Not every 15-year-old,” he said, “can pay her own way at home.”
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.
