Knocking back the boards
In Boca Raton and Delray Beach, it’s been a summer of taking on touchy subjects.
First, the Delray Beach City Commission questioned whether so much tax revenue should keep going to the community redevelopment agency when the wider city has so many needs. Then City Manager Don Cooper asked why the city needs to give so much property revenue to charities that have other sources of money.
Now Boca Raton is looking at the city’s 29 community boards, which on paper make Boca look like a bastion of civic involvement but in practice can suck up a lot of staff time for comparatively few results.
The issue didn’t get much attention when the city council discussed it last month, perhaps because the council was about to vote on Chabad East Boca. Deputy City Manager George Brown’s report, however, made a good case for consolidation and elimination.
For example, between 2011 and 2014 the Community Relations Board cancelled 22 of its monthly meetings. Seventeen cancellations were for lack of a quorum. The Education Advisory Board cancelled 13 meetings, seven because not enough members showed up. The Elder Affairs Advisory Board cancelled 32 meetings, 19 of them for lack of a quorum.
If the board members don’t care about showing up, or if there’s nothing for the board to discuss, why does the city need the board? If the city doesn’t need the board, that would free up what Brown’s report calculated was 23 hours of staff time per month for being the liaison to each board.
As the report notes, some boards perform needed regulatory functions, such as the Community Appearance Board and the Planning and Zoning Board. Even there, a review might be necessary. One can argue that a tougher Community Appearance Board could have headed off all the unhappiness over the look of the Mark at Cityscape that we heard at last April’s daylong discussion of Boca’s interim design guidelines.
The three pension boards aren’t going anywhere. Nor are the housing authority and airport authority board. But the North Federal Highway Steering Committee hasn’t met since last February and didn’t meet at all last year. Given the lack of progress toward developing North Federal over the last decade, there hasn’t been much to steer. And with completion of the new downtown library, the Library Board seems obsolete.
The report makes two recommendations. The first is to consolidate the Advisory Board for People With Disabilities, Community Relations Board, Education Advisory Board, Elder Affairs Advisory Board and Green Living Advisory Board into a new entity, possibly renamed the Community Advisory Panel. It would have seven to nine members and meet quarterly, or more often if needed.
The second recommendation is to eliminate the Citizens Pedestrian and Bikeway Advisory Board, Library Board and Marine Advisory Board and consolidate those functions within the Parks and Recreation Board. One problem with the proliferation of advisory boards is that their duties can overlap. The Planning and Zoning Board, not a separate Marine Advisory Board, for example, can handle issues related to dock building.
Another recommendation is that some boards limit their meetings. The Community Appearance Board meets weekly, but for others even monthly may be too often. Ultimately, as the report says, the goal should be for the council to get “meaningful” input on key issues. If issues arise that are outside of the remaining boards, Boca has had good luck with special task forces.
When Brown presented the report, council members generally were supportive. According to a city spokeswoman, Brown hopes to have a follow-up report ready for a council workshop—discussion only, no votes— in late September. If bureaucracy is bad in city government, it’s also bad for the boards that advise city government.
Detox in Deerfield
For three decades, Brooks in Deerfield Beach made the lists of Florida’s best restaurants. Just south of Hillsboro Boulevard on Federal Highway, Brooks’ country-club atmosphere might have been too retro for some, but the food and service were superb.
In 2013, however, Brooks was sold. Under construction is something far different from the establishment that prided itself on contemporary American cuisine. The property will become home to a detox center for drug and alcohol addicts, part of the existing Deerfield Florida House that began operating in 2003.
According to the Broward County Property Appraiser’s Office, Deerfield Florida House has bought other properties in the last four years, all clustered near the original location. The combined price for those properties has been roughly $6.3 million. The Brooks site went for $2.3 million in January 2013.
These purchases further demonstrate that South Florida in general and the Boca Raton-Delray Beach area in particular are becoming centers of the estimated $35 billion recovery industry as politicians from the city level up to Congress debate how to regulate the industry. The debate is especially intense regarding sober houses to which addicts move after they receive treatment.
Boca Raton and Delray Beach tried to regulate the location of sober houses. Both lost in court, because addicts are a protected class under the Fair Housing Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act. This year, the Florida Legislature required that treatment centers refer patients only to certified sober houses. Without legislation in Congress, however, local governments can’t take any significant action.
The Deerfield Beach City Commission approved the treatment center for Florida House on the former Brooks property in August 2013. According to the minutes of the commission meeting, Florida House operates four sober houses on the west side of Federal Highway, and as part of the approval pledged not to open sober houses east of Federal. Directly east of the treatment center is a residential neighborhood. Just to the north is Saint Ambrose Catholic Church. Florida House also owns the nearby JoJo’s Café, which serves patients and the public.
In approving the treatment center, Deerfield Beach officials cited the cases involving Boca Raton and Delray Beach as reasons not to resist, even if they still want ways to control this industry’s growth. All projections are that demand for treatment will continue to grow. So will the demand for sensible regulation.
Glickstein explains
On Sunday, Delray Beach Mayor Cary Glickstein emailed a roughly 1,200-word letter to residents. In the letter, Glickstein explained his reasons for voting last week in favor of the iPic project downtown.
It was an extraordinary gesture, and spoke to the emotion surrounding the issue. Glickstein told me that he was motivated in part by social media chatter, but more by the impassioned arguments he heard at the meeting that ran from Tuesday night into Wednesday morning.
Glickstein made two key points. 1) Many of Delray Beach’s most controversial decisions turned out well. He cited the move of Atlantic High School. 2) When the community redevelopment agency chose iPic two years ago, the overall reaction was favorable.
“I believe,” Glickstein said the letter, “there is a version of iPic that’s good for the city, and I remain hopeful that by the time it makes the round of approvals, many more people will see the citywide benefits outweigh the risks, and that when completed we will come to view it as a good addition to our downtown.”
Don’t hate us because we’re beautiful
It’s been hot even for August, and we’re in the height of hurricane season. But take heart. According to the federal government, Palm Beach County is one of the best spots in the county when it comes to natural amenities.
That distinction comes from the U.S Department of Agriculture, which ranks the nation’s 3,111 counties based on “natural aspects of attractiveness.” Most important, the agency says, are “mild climate, varied topography and proximity to surface water—ponds, lakes and shorelines.”
By that standard, Palm Beach County is the 108th most desirable place to live in the country. Only the Keys (59th), Martin County (89th) and Lee County (94th) ranked higher in Florida. If that isn’t enough to keep you cool in August, there’s always a happy-hour gin and tonic.
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.
