This is my last City Watch post. Retirement beckons.
Thanks to John Shuff and Margaret Mary Shuff for the chance to write this blog 12 years ago. Thanks to Marie Speed and Christiana Lilly, my great editors, and the other wonderful staff members with whom I’ve had the privilege of working. And thanks to the readers. Long live local journalism.
A question of eligibility
Still more evidence indicates that Save Boca founder Jonathan Pearlman was not eligible to run for the city council seat he won this month—and that the city did not do enough to verify that he was eligible.
Candidates must have established legal residency in Boca Raton for at least one year before the qualifying period for an election. Qualifying for this year’s election opened on Nov. 3, 2025. Candidates thus would have needed to establish residency no later than Nov. 3, 2024. Yet according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DMV), Pearlman did not use his Boca Raton home as a residential address until Aug. 6, 2025. Previously, the house at 498 NE Eighth St. had been a mailing address for his driver’s license.
In May 2021, according to DMV records, Pearlman listed 1089 S. Ocean Blvd. in Palm Beach as his residential address. That is the home of Lillian Schneider, Pearlman’s grandmother. Pearlman first listed that as a residential address with the DMV in 2013, a year after he graduated from college.
A year later, Pearlman listed his mailing address as a condo in Gulf Stream owned by his mother, Susan Schneider. In 2017, his mailing address was The Mark, a rental complex in downtown Boca Raton. Three years later, the mailing address was his grandmother’s house. A year later, it was a home in Delray Beach. But the residential address—the grandmother’s house—never changed until last summer.
So, despite Pearlman claiming during his campaign to have been a Boca Raton resident for nearly a decade, the record says otherwise. Aside from what appears to be those three years at The Mark—during which he created a fitness website with a Boca Raton address—Pearlman has no apparent ties to the city.
Officials at the city clerk’s office also could have questioned the documents Pearlman used to prove residency. He submitted utility and pool cleaning bills in the name of 498 NE 8th Street LLC, the entity that owned the property. Three lots were combined to create the oversized house in the Golden Triangle east of Mizner Park, where tear downs have proliferated.
Pearlman also submitted a deed in the name of 498 NE 8th Street LLC, not his name. Even today, the home is in the name of Pearlman’s trust. Pearlman also submitted photos of himself and his children. I’ve never seen another candidate do that.
In contrast, Pearlman’s opponent—outgoing council member Marc Wigder—submitted a driver’s license with his address in Woodfield Country Club. Wigder also submitted a property tax bill and deed in his name.
There’s more. This month, the city council toughened the residency requirement to include proof that a prospective candidate has not voted outside the city in the previous year. Mayor Scott Singer acknowledged that the change was aimed at Pearlman. Wigder said Pearlman did not register to vote at a precinct within the city until last summer.
Finally, Pearlman’s real estate license lists the Palm Beach home as the main address. The Boca Raton house is only the mailing address.
The city also failed to properly review signatures from Save Boca petitions for a charter amendment and ordinance requiring referendums on transactions involving public land. Organizers collected many signatures before the petition committees had been created. That violated election laws.
Boca Raton resident and lawyer Ned Kimmelman challenged the overly restrictive petitions after the city certified them. A judge kept them off the ballot, ruling that they were unconstitutional. Under Florida law, the judge said, only the council can make those changes. The electorate can’t.
In practical terms, the new revelations about Pearlman’s eligibility might not mean much. If someone successfully challenged his candidacy, the court ruling would create a vacancy until the next election—the Aug. 18 state primary. Pearlman could apply to fill the seat he had to give up. If the council didn’t choose him, Pearlman could run in August, at which time he would be eligible. He also could run for the seat that Yvette Drucker will give up to run for county clerk.
But it is clear why Pearlman ducked questions about his background and why he refused to return media questionnaires. It also is clear that the city must not presume that candidates are being transparent about where they live. Ample evidence suggests that the city should have declared Pearlman ineligible.
Plans for Boca’s parks
One early decision for the new council will be whether to continue with plans for a softball complex at Sugar Sand Park and skate park at North Park.
These plans date to when the original Terra/Frisbie plan was for all 30 acres around City Hall. The three new council members, who made up the Save Boca slate, may want to oppose both and consider keeping them downtown as part of any new recreation plan for the area.
But the skate park is far along. Briann Harms, executive director of the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, said, “We are moving forward with the construction documents.” The district owns North Park. Harms hopes to have those documents before the district board next month. The city delayed a decision on the softball complex until after the election.
Despite Save Boca’s opposition, skaters and members of the softball community supported the moves. Softball parents especially like that the four-field complex finally would equal what youth baseball has had for years. City officials said the clustered fields would be cheaper and easier to maintain than having two fields downtown and one at Meadows Park.
And despite Save Boca supporters’ claims, there are no active gopher tortoise nests on the site. That land long has been designated for recreation. Opposition to the Terra/Frisbie plan does not have to mean opposition to the softball complex.
Palmetto Park Square’s future
Boca Raton may be close to approval for the makeover of Palmetto Park Square.
Atlanta-based Selig Enterprises owns the 23-acre retail complex on Palmetto Park Road just east of Interstate 95. Selig plans to demolish roughly 70 percent of that retail space and add 341 apartments on the east side at heights of five stories. Selig calls it “a near complete renovation.”
The Publix on the north side would move to the former Kmart space on the west side and—at roughly 50,000 square feet—become the largest in Florida. Some stores would remain on the east and north sides. New retail would go in the center. Selig also promises “an extensive network of pedestrian and shared-use pathways, a centrally located outdoor plaza and other enhanced outdoor common areas.”
This project will not go before the city council for approval. Selig filed it under the Live Local Act and is designating 40 percent of the apartments as affordable housing, exempting it from council review.
Michael Marshall is Selig’s attorney. The developer and the staff, he said Monday, are “down in the weeds” on details for the site plan amendment. There also is a lot of “coordinating with Publix,” which maintains strict standards for its stores. He hopes that the staff review will be complete “in the spring.”
Land-use changes from Tallahassee
Speaking of the state and local development rules, the Legislature just passed another bill that will make it harder for cities to control development.
Most notably, House Bill 399—which Gov. Ron DeSantis already signed—requires that land-use changes get only a simple majority to pass. Boca Raton and Delray Beach have required a supermajority of four votes. Land-use changes are among the most significant requests developers can make.
The bill allows the owners of the historic Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach to build large waterslides despite local opposition. The owner is a big Republican donor.
University Village under staff review
Speaking of big local projects, the new version of one for Boca Raton’s largest undeveloped parcel is under staff review. That would be University Village, proposed for 77 acres along Spanish River Boulevard just east of I-95.
In 2015, the city council approved a master plan that called for 829 residential units and 382,000 square feet of commercial development, built in three phases. The new version, which developer Penn-Florida submitted last fall, calls for 781 units and roughly 350,000 square feet of commercial, including a 185-room hotel. Development would occur in six phases.
Bonnie Miskel, Penn-Florida’s attorney, told me recently that staff review is “pretty far along” on what she called “a great plan.” The project had an early hearing before the community appearance board that Miskel called “a positive.”
The approval has remained alive over the last decade because of extensions that Miskel said Penn-Florida could not receive today. Penn-Florida, of course, has drawn criticism for delays to the downtown Mandarin Oriental project that the city also approved in 2015. That criticism could arise when the city council considers the site plan change. Construction, Miskel said, would take “10 to 20 years.”
Looking to the 2027 election
Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney seeded his 2027 re-election bid with a $10,000 loan during the last three months of 2025. Carney is the only announced candidate for mayor. The seats of City Commissioners Juli Casale and Thomas Markert also will be on the March ballot.
Vacancies in Delray Beach
Speaking of Delray Beach, when I began this blog in 2014, the three blocks east of the Fairfield Inn were vacant. City officials had hopes for a mixed-use project that would include a grocery store in the food desert of West Atlantic Avenue.
As I conclude this blog, the blocks remain vacant. The Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), which owns the property, approved a contract for such a project in April 2019. In January 2021, the CRA backed out, finding the developer in default.
A year ago, there was a big discussion about consultants and surveys and possible requests for proposals. This month, the CRA had a similar discussion, focusing again on the need for a 20,000-square-foot grocery. The agency has received a proposal from RH Development Group, which has done project as close as Boynton Beach and Lake Worth Beach.
Maybe something will happen on that site before another 12 years pass.
Delray Beach Improvements
To leave on a more optimistic note for Delray Beach, a high point of writing this blog was watching the city deal with the proliferation of sober houses after the real estate crash.
Doing so involved a collaboration with U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, who helped to secure a key change in federal law that allows local governments to impose restrictions on the houses. The worst of them churned through patients, draining their insurance before dumping them on the street.
It also involved a creative police department, which hired the nation’s first “service population advocate,” to meet the patients where they were. It was, and remains, an example of government at its best.
Last words
In closing, and as a Boca Raton resident, it’s easy for city officials to get smug. That’s dangerous.
Yes, the city’s tax base is 60 percent larger than West Palm Beach’s. Yes, the city is attracting businesses. But the city can’t separate itself from outside influences.
I have warned that the Republican Party’s attack on public education would reach Boca Raton. It has. Because of budget cuts from lower enrollment—due to GOP policies such as vouchers and draconian immigration enforcement—all county high schools must cut their budgets for next year by $600,000. Those likely won’t be the last cuts.
Despite the Republican-led Legislature’s removal of climate change as a state priority, the climate will keep changing. Florida is warming at a faster rate than other states, leaving us more vulnerable to ever-powerful storms.
Then there’s the affordability issue. Outgoing Mayor Scott Singer understandably annoyed residents last fall when he urged New York billionaires to flee with the pending election of Mayor Zohran Mamdani and come to Boca. One thing the city does not need is more rich people driving up housing costs, demanding tax cuts and putting nothing of themselves into the city.
On that note, the three candidates for mayor spent at least $1.2 million. The final total will be higher, since this count doesn’t include final campaign finance reports. The winner, Andy Thomson, must lead Boca Raton out of the Terra/Frisbie trauma and give residents a return on that investment.
