The noise goes on
On Monday, Boca Raton’s no-growth crowd couldn’t argue the facts or the law. So they just argued.
As I reported Friday, city staff had determined—after four months of research—that over nearly three decades Boca Raton has correctly applied the open space requirements for downtown projects. The issue arose last fall during yet another review of the city’s downtown architectural guidelines. City Manager Leif Ahnell noted a 2003 memo from the city’s then-downtown director to planners about how to apply the rule that 40 percent of downtown projects must be “ground to sky” open space. That requirement is in Ordinance 4035, which the city adopted in 1992 to govern downtown redevelopment.
The no-growthers pounced. BocaWatch publisher and presumed 2017 mayoral candidate Al Zucaro stated that “paper shredders” must have been running, to destroy evidence of the city giving breaks to developers. A few weeks later, Boca Beautiful President John Gore ran an ad in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel headlined “Breaking the law in Boca.” Gore later appeared at a meeting to lecture city council members on the importance of following Ordinance 4035.
In fact, there was no cover-up and no law-breaking. On Monday, staff members walked city council members— meeting as the Community Redevelopment Agency board— through the history of downtown redevelopment in general and Ordinance 4035 in particular. Here’s one interesting finding: New downtown projects have less to do with heavier traffic in Boca Raton than transportation issues in Delray Beach and northeast Broward County.
Yet the no-growthers couldn’t admit to being wrong n open space. So they changed the argument.
I have referred to the open space flap as a “manufactured controversy.” Ahnell and the council asked for this needlessly long review, which distracted Boca from other business, to placate the no-growthers. Let’s see how that worked out.
On Monday, Gore agreed that the controversy had been “manufactured.” Absurdly, however, he said the controversy had been “manufactured by you,” meaning the council. “You started the fire,” Gore said. “We just turned up the heat.” Actually, Boca Beautiful and BocaWatch were the firebugs.
Unable to claim victory on open space, Gore moved the goalposts. In a new Sun-Sentinel ad today, headlined “Enforce the law in Boca,” Boca Beautiful now claims that the city is ignoring Addison Mizner-like design guidelines “to maximize profits for developers.” The ad offers no examples, referring only to “ugly concrete monstrosities rising on Federal Highway and Palmetto Park Road.” The previous Boca Beautiful ad called for a moratorium on downtown development. This ad demands that the city “enforce Boca’s architectural design guidelines.”
Zucaro didn’t speak at Monday’s meeting, leaving early after chatting with Gore. Zucaro did find time, though, to post three new rants on the BocaWatch website. One states falsely that nothing on the public record supports the claim that the council in 2009 bought the Wildflower property for use as a restaurant.
In fact, there was discussion at the meeting about whether the property contained restrictions on outdoor dining. Then-Mayor Susan Whelchel said the council hoped to buy an additional smaller, adjoining parcel to the north for use as a park.
Having forced the staff to produce the downtown report, which is large enough to crash some computers, the council finally fired back at the no-growthers. “When you make statements that we are ‘destroying’ this city,” said Robert Weinroth, “what city are you talking about?” Referring to other cities begging for downtown redevelopment, “Jeremy Rodgers said, “I’d rather have the ‘problem’ we have than the problem they have.”
Susan Haynie criticized the no-growthers for basically calling Boca Raton’s elected officials and administrators “liars.” Scott Singer noted that no one had challenged the accuracy of the study, which reported that only one downtown project—Townsend Place, where Gore lives—is out of compliance with open space rules. “One mistake,” Singer said, “doesn’t amount to lawlessness.”
But one defeat, however embarrassing, won’t silence the no-growthers. Their noise is all about the March 2017 city election, when the mayor’s job and two council seats are up. At this point, they don’t have a case on the law or the facts. So they will argue. And sometimes lie.
Delray’s pension issue
Public safety pension reform in Delray Beach is not quite done, but the city is getting close.
The city commission did approve three-year contracts with the police and fire unions that will mean big savings in pension benefits over 30 years. According to Chief Financial Officer Jack Warner, the estimated savings from the police contact is $21 million. Because the fire contract also redirects $1 million annually from firefighter cost-of-living adjustments to the city’s unfunded pension liability, Warner estimates the total savings at $45 million.
Delray Beach, however, also wanted to change the police-fire pension board. It makes decisions on investments. Bad decisions reduce the fund’s assets. The city must make up any shortages. In its two most recent reports, the LeRoy Collins Institute at Florida State University rated Delray’s police-fire pension fund ‘F.’
Currently, the city appoints four members of the pension board, and the fire and police unions each get two appointments. Under the new contracts, the police and fire funds will be separate. The city will choose two members, the respective union will choose two members, and those four will choose the fifth. The swing vote thus will have to be a compromise choice.
Mayor Cary Glickstein, city commissioners and city officials have complained regularly about the fund’s poor investment returns. Warner points out that a one-percentage point improvement in return for the $150 million fund would be worth $1.5 million a year. Better returns would augment the savings from the contracts.
City Attorney Noel Pfeffer told me that the funds will be split, and new boards chosen, as soon as the fund’s actuaries issue impact statements for the changes. At a recent meeting, Pfeffer told the commission that the police union had agreed to the change in return for the city extending its contract an additional year—to Sept. 30, 2018. The fire contract still expires on Sept. 30, 2017.
At some point, Delray Beach may want to propose the more dramatic shift from a traditional defined-benefit pension to a defined-contribution pension. The savings might be even greater, but pushing for that now would have been too much. The town of Palm Beach instituted similar drastic reform in 2012, and the result has been high turnover in the police and fire departments.
As in Boca Raton, Delray Beach worked with the unions to get pension reform that protects the public yet keeps salaries and benefits competitive. High morale among cops and firefighters also protects the public.
Money talks and the CRA
Delray Beach city commissioners and Community Redevelopment Agency board members will hold another workshop meeting today. Based on the backup material, the subject, not surprisingly, will be money.
All additional property tax revenue from downtown development goes to the CRA, not the city. But the need for downtown services such as police and fire-rescue come from city departments. With needs also growing outside the downtown, the commission would like the CRA to pay more of the downtown services bill.
The agency already pays for some downtown police officers. In a March 31 letter to City Manager Don Cooper, Police Chief Jeffrey Goldman predicts that the department will need to add 14 sworn positions and six civilian positions over the next three years. One topic up for discussion will be what Mayor Cary Glickstein calls “fungibility”—moving money from one source to another.
CRA Director Jeff Costello said the agency wants to work with the city on ways to shift costs. It’s budget season already, even though the fiscal year is barely half over. Today’s meeting needs to be productive.
Scottism of the month
Gov. Rick Scott says a lot of funny things without meaning to be funny, but one of the silliest was his suggestion that Yale University should consider moving to Florida because some Connecticut legislators wanted to tax earnings from Yale’s $25 billion-plus endowment. The tax never did happen.
To the governor, Yale is just another business in a state with a Democratic governor. As a Yale official noted, however, the university, the city and the state “have been on common ground to great mutual benefit for 300 years.”
Presumably with a straight face, Scott said Yale “would add yet another great university to our state.” No disrespect, but no college in Florida is on Yale’s level. Indeed, Scott has offered no plan to raise the level of higher education in Florida. If anything, he has lowered it.
In 2012, Scott approved creation of Florida Polytechnic in Lakeland. The Legislature had approved the unneeded 12th university as a gift to retiring state Sen. J.D. Alexander, who lives in Lakeland. Alexander persuaded Scott that Florida Poly could be another Georgia Tech. Instead, Florida Poly just missed its first deadline for accreditation. Florida Poly drains money from Florida Atlantic and the other 10 state universities.
By creating a great higher education system, Florida also would have a better chance of creating great jobs. Leave most out-of-state recruiting to football coaches.
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.
