Palm Beach County Commission sells out the public

If the Palm Beach County Commission asks for money in the next year or so, say no. The public can’t trust this commission.

That became clear last week. By a vote of 5-2, the commission disregarded what voters intended when they taxed themselves $100 million 22 years ago.

That money, to buy land, was the centerpiece of an effort to protect the Agricultural Reserve Area. It comprises roughly 20,000 acres, mostly west of Delray Beach and Boynton Beach.

With the money came a plan. It allowed a certain amount of residential and commercial development within the reserve — and then no more.

Pushback was fierce. Developers wanted that protected land. Property owners wanted more development so they could sell out for more money.

But though developer GL Homes is one party to last week’s terrible vote, the main conspirator is a government agency.

The Lake Worth Drainage District provides flood control for southeastern Palm Beach County. Most people know it only as a line on their property tax bill.

Five district supervisors set policy. The one-acre, one-vote system for electing them is out of the 18th century. Large landowners — many of them farmers — control the voting. Elections almost never are contested. Last year, the challenger to incumbent Jeffrey Phipps got 374 votes. Phipps got 7,177.

Executive Director Tommy Strowd said the district must build water storage. The district could raise money by raising its assessment, currently $49.50 per acre.

But higher assessments, Strowd said, would mean much higher costs for large landowners. Three of them are district supervisors.

So the district had an idea: Sell rights-of-way along its canals within the Agricultural Reserve Area to a developer. Though no one can build on those slivers of property, the developer would get rights for “preserving” that land and then be allowed to build homes elsewhere that would otherwise be more than the Agricultural Reserve plan allows.

Everyone knew that GL Homes — the largest developer in and around the reserve — would be the only bidder. The district’s minimum bid last year was $21.9 million. GL Homes bid $22 million.

County commissioners got the final say. The county’s planners and lawyers opposed the deal. So did the former county administrator. So did the largest master homeowner association that overdevelopment might affect.

None of that mattered to commissioners Mack Bernard, Maria Marino, Melissa McKinlay, Robert Weinroth and Gregg Weiss. They talked themselves into approving a deal that their own staff said would bring no benefit to the public.

Weinroth and Weiss are up for reelection next year. Weinroth’s contributions include $2,000 from Mark Perry. He’s the drainage district’s attorney.

Weinroth also got $2,000 from entities of the Bedner farm family. Stephen Bedner is a drainage district supervisor. Weinroth got $1,000 from Ag Reserve landowner James Alderman. He’s also a district supervisor.

Weiss whined that he found the vote “distasteful.” Apparently, though, Weiss could stomach taking his own $2,000 from Perry and from the Bedners.

Speaking of elections, the Palm Beach Post found that one-fourth of Phipps’ votes in that district supervisor election came from GL Homes. That $49.50 assessment applies no matter how small your lot. So average homeowners will subsidize large landowners.

Next year, or perhaps in 2024, the commission may ask voters to approve bond sales for affordable housing and/or environmental projects. Commissioners will pledge to spend the public’s money well. But five of them just broke a 22-year-old pledge. And nobody but special interests will benefit.

Long-timers at the Palm Beach

County School District understand how damaging it is to lose credibility.

In 1986, voters approved the district’s $687 million construction bond plan. The results rivaled Broward County’s current school construction debacle.

High schools ran $20 million over budget. Projects weren’t completed. District officials accepted gifts from contractors. The state attorney investigated.

It took 18 years before the district tried again for a construction referendum. Thanks to oversight that began after the 1986 program, voters went along. The 2004 program and the current one — from the 2016 sales tax surcharges — are models of promises made, promises kept.

We who supported that 1999 referendum would like a refund. Those five commissioners may have consigned the Agricultural Reserve Area to suburbia, but they also plowed under the county’s credibility.