Locally, Tuesday’s election changed very little.
Democrat Jared Moskowitz will remain the congressional representative for Boca Raton and West Boca. He defeated Joe Kaufman in a near-replay of the 2022 election.
That year, Moskowitz got 52% of the vote to 47% for Republican Joe Budd. This year, Moskowitz got 52% to 48% for Joe Kaufman. As in 2022, Moskowitz lost the Palm Beach County portion of District 23, but he more than made up for it in the Broward County portion.
Democrat Lois Frankel will remain the congressional representative for Delray Beach and West Delray. Frankel got 55% to 45% for Dan Franzese to win her seventh term in District 22. Those results are identical to the 2022 mid-term race. This time, Franzese put $1.2 million of his own money into the race and moved the needle not at all.
The local races reflect where Florida is statewide. Twenty-seven of the state’s 28 U.S. House incumbents won in a year when voters supposedly wanted change. The only new member of the state delegation will be former Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos succeeding Bill Posey in a Space Coast seat, and that was an inside deal. Posey announced his retirement at the qualifying deadline, allowing Haridopolos to be the only Republican candidate.
GOP-gerrymandered disticts and closed primaries make it very hard for credible candidates to challenge congressional incumbents. Both parties fight any attempt to give unaffiliated voters more influence over choosing candidates.
Things also will remain in terms of the Legislature. Republican Peggy Gossett-Seidman will continue to represent Boca Raton and Highland Beach in the House. Democrat Joe Casello will do the same for Delray Beach.
Gossett-Seidman got 55% against the well-financed Jay Shooster. That was a slight improvement over her performance in 2022. Casello got 56% against his Republican challenger, almost the same as two years ago.
The main new face will be Gloria Branch, who defeated Mindy Koch in the race to succeed Palm Beach County School Board District 5 member Frank Barbieri. He chose to retire after four terms. The district includes Boca Raton and West Boca.
Voters approve half-cent sales tax for schools
Speaking of public schools, Palm Beach County voters extended a half-cent sales tax for capital projects. The revenue, estimated at $2 billion over 10 years, will finance construction, renovations and security improvements.
In 2016, voters approved a one-cent surcharge, with half the money going to schools and the other half to the county and cities for infrastructure work. The county chose not to extend its half-cent, so the overall sales tax eventually will drop from 7% to 6.5%.
Twenty-five similar proposals passed across the state, with just one failing. Those votes represent a seeming disconnect.
Voters regularly send to Tallahassee Republican legislators who approve policies hostile to traditional public schools and helpful to charter schools and private schools. The most notable example is the program that allows families to obtain private school vouchers, regardless of income.
Presumably, Republican voters like those policies, which force school districts to ask those same local voters for money. Yet in increasingly Republican Palm Beach County, the sales tax got 60%. Similar measures got far higher percentages in much more GOP-heavy counties. How fortunate, since traditional public schools still educate the vast majority of Florida’s children.
Delray awards Pompey Park contract
The Delray Beach City Commission on Monday awarded the Pompey Park contract to CORE Construction of Florida.
A staff committee had ranked CORE one point ahead of Pirtle Construction, but Pirtle filed an appeal. The company alleged that the winning entity—a combination of CORE and two Delray Beach-based firms—did not exist. The commission then called Monday’s special meeting to hear from both teams.
CORE representatives acknowledged that their proposal is not a joint venture with Hatcher Construction and Development and Randolph Construction Group. CORE will provide all the bonding and assume all the risk. The company will provide “training” and development for members of the local firms.
That explanation was enough to satisfy Mayor Tom Carney and Commissioners Angela Burns, Juli Casale and Thomas Markert. All said they would side with the staff choice. City Attorney Lynn Gelin bolstered their case by disputing Pirtle’s argument that CORE had not applied under a legal entity.
Pirtle also criticized CORE’s proposal that the company give the commission $5,000 to dole out to local non-profits. A company official said, “I’ve never seen anything like it.” Commissioners did reject that offer.
Commissioner Rob Long was the lone dissenter. He noted that Pirtle has a long local record that includes 50 schools in Palm Beach County. CORE, which is relatively new to Florida, has built nothing in the county. He called CORE’s presentation for the estimated $40 million project “vague.”
A CORE representative pledged to “brainstorm” with city officials on ways to reduce costs “without taking anything away” from the project.
Labor union employees of the city seek pay bonus
There was an awkward moment during Monday’s Boca Raton City Council meeting.
Awkward because some of the city’s blue-collar employees—most of them people of color—were asking the elected officials of an affluent, mostly white city for a small amount of money. And they seemed to have a case.
Members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) had come before the council before with this complaint. They were seeking one-time bonuses that went to some non-union employees. The SEIU contract, which runs until Sept. 30 of next year, doesn’t include such bonuses.
As he did the first time, City Manager George Brown said the union could seek those payments in the next three-year contract. Negotiations begin in the spring. City policy, Brown said, is not to alter contracts outside of bargaining.
Councilman Andy Thomson, however, noted that the city had just done that. Boca Raton will give all employees the day off after Thanksgiving. Thomson also noted that two bonuses had gone to those non-union employees. By withholding them from SEIU members, the city was “penalizing them for being part of a union.”
Vice Mayor Yvette Drucker seemed to side with Thomson. Mayor Scott Singer defended Brown by pointing out that he was not city manager when the city negotiated the contract. Singer asked that Brown and City Attorney Josh Koehler, who started this month, have time to review the matter.
No one, though, said no. The audience clapped when the discussion ended. Who knows if they read the room right, but Thomson said, “I hope something does happen soon.”
Boca council approves plans for carwash on Federal Highway
In an earlier meeting, council members approved plans for a restaurant/car wash at 7900 N. Federal Highway.
One speaker supported the project by saying that the company operates similar facilities on Long Island and gushed about their cleanliness and service. City planners noted that the city has tried for many years to encourage development along that section of Federal Highway near the Delray Beach city line.
No Boca holiday boat parade
As in 2023, Boca Raton will not hold a holiday boat parade this year. Weather caused cancellations last year. “More recently,” a spokeswoman said, “we just weren’t getting enough participants, despite increased outreach and promotion.”
