How much power should a city wield, and how? (Looking at you, Boca.)
The city of Boca Raton and its officials are about to inflict serious harm upon 960 homeowners, while disclaiming any responsibility to consider their interests. We say no.
Governments cannot act outside the laws and regulations that entitle them to wield power. When Boca Raton was given a golf course and other facilities located at the Boca Golf and Tennis Club, which is located in unincorporated Palm Beach county, it seemed a gift horse too appealing to refuse. While the city has gotten a championship 18 holes, and the donor a mighty tax deduction, many homeowners who live abutting the grounds are not so happy.
The story itself has many elements, including closed door negotiations that may have violated open meeting laws. But that’s not all. Section 2.03(c) of the city’s charter says:
Except as may be provided by Florida Statutes, the City of Boca Raton shall exercise no corporate powers concerning the “Boca Raton Reserve Area” until the area (or part thereof ) shall have been annexed by the City of Boca Raton in the manner hereinafter provided in this section.
If the city presses on with its plans and fails to annex the property it has acquired, it appears it will be acting outside the limits of its charter. It would be affecting people who have no right to vote in Boca and therefore have little voice and are not afforded Boca amenities. But the city, which voted to accept the gift by taking title to and leasing back the property last October, has no plans to annex the grounds they’re about to begin exercising operational control over as of Oct. 1. Why not? Mayor Scott Singer states it would be too expensive, and his duty is to his taxpayers. Never mind the harm inflicted upon the people he does not deign to bring within the city’s embrace, while taking away from them the very reasons many of them moved to the BG&T in the first place.
There’s another law that’s instructive and tries to prevent governments from running roughshod over people. The new statutory authority, effective in 2021, puts the resources of governmental entities at risk when they act to diminish a property owner’s value in their homes or land. Florida statutes, 2021: Title VI, Chapter 70, Relief from Burdens on Real Property Rights 70.001, includes in Section 3 a definition of governmental entities to include cities, and also includes “policies” within the kind of actions that may result in compensation.
We would suggest to Mayor Singer and the Boca Raton City Council that there are very good public policy reasons — and reasons as old as the formation of governments — to disallow sweet deals that neglect the impact on the “little people” who are abruptly faced with losing much of the value of their residences. No pool access in Florida? Really, you must be kidding.
Is there a solution? A compromise has been proposed to the city. Many property owners at the complex are willing to reasonably subsidize the continuing operation of a pool and other amenities by paying dues for a membership that would allow them what so many Boca area residents expect: convenient access to swimming for themselves and their families. A recent response by the city has been that the pool is too small to be open to the public at large, and therefore, it may well be filled in — but that doesn’t have to be the last word.
Let’s be a bit more creative and mindful of the many defects the initial transaction and current plans seem to have. There could be a win-win through continuing negotiations. (Let’s nail down traffic and security concerns while we’re at it.)
Boca certainly wants to be cautious in exercising its will properly, not imperiously. Councils and mayors don’t take the Hippocratic Oath when they’re sworn in, but doing no harm and respecting the limits of their authority seem like good aspirations — and we, as some of the affected property owners, are not going to take it without challenge.
Boca Raton resident Sharon Rubinstein wrote this piece, with fellow residents Alan Medvin, Anita Pellegrino, Sue Greenberg, Marv Weinstein and Bob Trinchetto cosigning in support. All are affected by the city’s operation of the Boca Golf and Tennis Club’s golf course.