For the Boca Raton City Council
Thomson would bring needed balance and substance to Boca Solution-oriented Scott Singer a better choice for Boca Raton mayor
We endorsed Andy Thomson last year in a three-way race for the Boca Raton City Council. He’s also the best candidate in this year’s three-way race.
Seat A became vacant when Scott Singer resigned to run for mayor. The term expires in March 2020. The winner of the Aug. 28 election would complete the term and then be eligible to run for two, three-year terms.
Thomson, an attorney, already has been working on an important issue: school crowding and safety. After losing to Andrea O’Rourke in 2017, Thomson applied to serve on the city’s new education task force. O’Rourke joined the unanimous vote to approve him. Thomson became vice chairman before resigning to run for the council.
Thomson, who says his four young children all will attend public school, supported the 2016 penny sales tax increase. That money will do much to relieve school crowding in Boca Raton. Because of Thomson’s service on the task force, he would bring the most experience on education.
One of Thomson’s opponents is Tamara McKee. An actor, McKee references her Internet Movie Database listing that shows 19 small movie and TV parts between 1982 and 2017 as Tamara Jones.
McKee is a likable, long-time city volunteer who says transparency is her priority. She also wants to restore trust in government. But despite her claim of having “more experience than the other candidates combined,” she doesn’t have a solid grasp of issues and policy. Example: McKee wants developers to pay for a “third-party” traffic study as part of their application. But they already pay for one. What difference would a second one make?
Thomson’s other opponent is Kathy Cottrell, who declined to attend the Sun Sentinel candidate interview. Cottrell describes herself as a semiretired organizational development consultant. Her campaign mailer urges voters to help her form a council majority with O’Rourke and Councilwoman Monica Mayotte.
Cottrell did return her Sun Sentinel questionnaire. In it, she said she wants the council to “implement a complete review of all plans — financial, strategic and otherwise.” Without question, fresh eyes are always helpful, but a review of every city plan risks distracting a staff already backlogged with council demands and behind on several key projects. We’d encourage the councl to be strategic and pick priorities.
Cottrell also calls Thomson a “developer attorney.” Actually, Thomson is a business litigator. He said his firm, Baritz & Coleman, has no clients who are developers.
During his campaigns this year and last, Thomson has come off as knowledgeable and thoughtful. He correctly warns of the impact on Boca Raton’s budget if voters increase the homestead exemption in November.
On transparency, Thomson believes that council members should publicly divulge the content of conversations regarding development projects, not just whom they communicated with. Hear, hear.
In a short time, Thomson has gained notable stature in Boca Raton. Last year, the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District approached him about becoming the agency’s attorney. He declined because he wanted to run for the council again.
The supposed knock on Thomson is that he has lived in the city a comparatively short time. But he has lived in the region for many years, and his record of involvement shows him to be a serious candidate. Ideas and substance matter more than longevity.
As overdevelopment rhetoric swirls in this campaign, Thomson stresses balance. “A city,” he said, “is a living, breathing thing. It needs some development.” Young families, like Thomson’s, who are moving to Boca Raton, want vibrancy and continued quality services.
Of all the candidates, Thomson can best represent not just those families, but everyone in Boca Raton who wants a thriving city that has far more blessings than problems.
The Sun Sentinel recommends Andy Thomson for Seat 4 on the Boca Raton City Council.
Two years ago, Boca Raton City Councilman Scott Singer was a favorite of Al Zucaro, the publisher of BocaWatch, a community website that takes sides in city elections.
BocaWatch praised Singer for breaking with his council colleagues and opposing a waterfront restaurant on the Wildflower property. Zucaro wanted Singer to run for mayor in March 2017, and tried unsuccessfully to talk then-Mayor Susan Haynie out of running for reelection. How times have changed.
In the Aug. 28 special election, Zucaro is running against Singer, who became mayor after Haynie was arrested in April on public corruption charges. The election is to fill Haynie’s term, which ends in March 2020.
Zucaro, who refused to attend the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board’s endorsement interview, portrays himself as the people’s candidate. He made the same argument during his unsucessful campaign against Haynie last year. Zucaro ran himself after failing to push her out of the race.
But Singer, though inconsistent, is the better choice.
School crowding emerged as an issue in Boca Raton last year. Seven months ago, when money for a new elementary school became available, Singer urged the council to donate 15 acres, thus securing for the city a school that otherwise would have gone elsewhere in Palm Beach County.
In addition, several neighborhoods have protested canal-clearing plans by the Lake Worth Drainage District. Their concerns seem justified. Singer and Councilwoman Monica Mayotte attended two district meetings, and the district has backed off for now. The elected officials’ presence likely made the difference.
Meanwhile, BocaWatch and Zucaro have continued their anti-council, anti-development diatribes. Though he’s running for mayor, Zucaro continues in his publisher’s role, using the nonprofit website as free media.
On Thursday, The Palm Beach Post reported that Singer has filed a lawsuit, claiming that Zucaro operates BocaWatch as a political committee and thus violates state law. The litigation may bring some needed scrutiny to the nonprofit.
For now, though, there’s ample evidence that Zucaro offers Boca Raton more discord than measured leadership.
In 2015, Zucaro ginned up a controversy over how much open space the city requires of downtown projects. He publicly accused administrators of a cover-up. When the council heard the results of an investigation that revealed only one minor violation, Zucaro was a no-show.
This year, the council blew up redevelopment of Midtown, urged on by BocaWatch. The action cost the city a needed remake of the area near Town Center Mall that would have had the owners paying for all public works improvements. It also led to a lawsuit seeking $137 million in damages.
Singer voted for the delay on Midtown. Last week, he also voted against an adult congregate living facility that had all the required approvals, joining Councilwomen Mayotte and Andrea O’Rourke. If Singer was seeking to please the anti-development faction, his moves were risky for the city.
Zucaro, though, seeks to mislead voters on the issue of development. A campaign mailer criticizes 13 Singer votes. By contrast, Zucaro says he “has led the fight against overdevelopment and its impact on our quality of life.”
Two of those 13 votes were for Mizner 200 and 1 South Ocean. In both cases, BocaWatch and Zucaro supported the final versions and praised the developers for working with residents.
Singer correctly attributes the city’s postrecession building surge to “15 years of pentup demand” and “financing markets turning to residential” and away from commercial development. He says it’s not about the council “being in the pockets of developers,” as some suggest.
Plus, Zucaro remains dogged by financial problems. He recently was deposed in a new effort to enforce a $406,000 court judgment against him for spending an investment in his business on personal expenses. With interest, the plaintiff says, the judgment is now at least $600,000.
With transparency being an issue in the wake of Haynie’s arrest, we note that Singer has proposed reforms in how city officials seek advisory ethics opinions.
In 2013, no one outside Haynie and the legal department knew that she had sought an opinion about voting on matters related to James and Marta Batmasian, downtown Boca Raton’s largest property owners. Under the changes the council approved, such requests are public and include all names.
Singer has a mixed record, but it includes advocacy of solutions.
Zucaro offers only anger.
The Sun Sentinel recommends Scott Singer for mayor of Boca Raton.