Petrolia is Delray Beach’s mayor
Boylston ousts incumbent Katz
After five years on the Delray Beach City Commission, Shelly Petrolia was elected the city’s mayor.
Incumbent Mitch Katz was defeated by newcomer Ryan Boylston for Seat 3.
Petrolia will be replaced by Adam Frankel, a former commissioner who was elected to Seat 1.
Petrolia narrowly defeated fellow Commissioner James Chard with 53 percent of the nearly 8,000 votes in Tuesday’s election.
Petrolia could not be reached by phone or email Tuesday evening, but she previously told the South Florida Sun Sentinel one of her priorities would be to fix the city’s crumbling roads and sidewalks.
Petrolia, who was first elected to the commission in 2013, has voted for several mea-
sures to cut down on city spending, and she said she wants to lower property taxes.
The election ended the brief political career of Chard after he was elected to the commission a year ago. He ran on a platform of drawing businesses to the city to grow the tax base.
Frankel, an attorney, won the seat with 43 percent of the votes. The race was a three-way contest among Frankel, political newcomer Eric Camacho and Richard Alteus, a former Riviera Beach police officer who ran unsuccessfully for commission last year.
Frankel did not respond to a phone call Tuesday night.
He served on the commission from 2009 to 2015. He plans to push for regulating transient housing and bringing development to the Congress Avenue corridor.
Local businessman Boylston unseated Katz, receiving 56 percent of the
Petrolia narrowly defeated fellow Commissioner James Chard with 53 percent of the nearly 8,000 votes.
votes.
Boylston is the founder of Woo Creative and wants to use his business acumen to bring stability to City Hall’s high employee turnover rate. He also said he wants to improve the city’s schools.
“I’m going to bring collaboration, creativity and just an overall togetherness back to Delray Beach,” Boylston said Tuesday night. “That’s what we’re all about.”
The city’s new leadership will be sworn in during an organizational meeting March 29.