In Boynton Beach, keep Kelley and elect Josemond

A bedroom community no longer, Boynton Beach reached a population of more than 80,000 residents in the last census — far exceeding the 68,000 who lived there ten years earlier, a growth rate matched by few cities in Palm Beach County.

The Town Square project that will define the downtown space of the county’s third-largest city is ongoing. The next city commission will be tasked with guiding Boynton as it becomes a city in its own right, and one part of the growth challenge will be to ensure that it benefits all residents, including those of District 2 on the city’s northeast side.

Of the four candidates in the District 2 race, Commissioner Woodrow Hay, former Commissioner Mack McCray and fiery local activist Bernard Wright did not return a Sun Sentinel questionnaire or participate in our interview, a basic but vital rite of passage. In our view, candidates who avoid their local newspaper are apt to avoid their constituents, too, and only first-time candidate Joe Josemond faced the music.

Josemond, 32, is the breath of fresh air that this district needs. Born at Bethesda Hospital, raised in Boynton Beach and a graduate of Florida A&M, he recognizes that despite the city’s up-and-coming character, his district struggles with basic necessities.

“We have potholes everywhere. The roads are not being maintained,” Josemond told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board. “We have no grocery stores in my district. It’s a food-scarce district. … We have no Walmart, no Publix, no convenience store. The only thing we have right now is a Dollar Store. I feel like we could do a little bit more.”Having worked five years in Boynton’s public works department, Josemond is better equipped than most residents to identify high-priority infrastructure needs. He currently works as Delray Beach’s full-time chief parking administrator.

According to the city charter, Boynton Beach commissioners are paid $15,000 a year. They can only serve two three-year terms.

Rivals questioned whether Josemond lives in the district, but he provided a three-year-old driver’s license that listed an address in the district and a letter from Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link certifying that he’s registered to vote in the district.

We’ve heard in past elections from Hay, McCray and others of this district’s glaring needs, and year after year, we’ve seen little progress. It’s time for fresh blood. For Boynton Beach City Commission District 2, the Sun Sentinel endorses Joe Josemond.

A palace coup at City Hall?

In District 4, incumbent Aimee Kelley faces two challengers in her first attempt to win election to the seat she’s held twice as an appointee, most recently when former Commissioner Ty Penserga won his mayoral race, creating a vacancy on the commission filled by the appointment of Kelley, a 45-year-old litigation paralegal with the law firm of Steinger, Greene and Feiner.

Like some other cities that fill vacancies through appointment and not election, Boynton Beach needs to amend its charter to end this system of political expediency.

Kelley’s appointment was not without controversy. The spouse of a Boynton Beach police captain, she got the appointment after the city manager had a falling out with the police union. Her vote gave the five-member city commission the supermajority it needed to oust City Manager Lori LaVerriere and replace her with another police captain, Dan Dugger.

Much has been made of this by one of her opponents, Tom Ramiccio, a former commissioner and mayor in Lake Worth Beach, who moved to Boynton Beach in 2017 and is trying for a political comeback. In his questionnaire and a telephone interview, he called Kelley’s appointment a “coup of City Hall by the police union.”

Ramiccio has had issues. As mayor of Lake Worth Beach in 2000, he was reprimanded, censured and fined $2,000 by the Florida Commission on Ethics for intimidating a business owner who supported a political rival. He accused Kelley of violating ethics guidelines by voting on issues such as police union contracts, but ethics laws only prohibit such votes when they specifically benefit an individual or close family member, not when they would benefit a whole class of people, such as police officers.

The third candidate in this race, Danny Lee Ferrell, seems to truly care about his city, but he’s unprepared to serve as a city commissioner. In an endorsement interview, he promised he would vote to deny building permits to new condos that don’t include a commission demand such as

20% of the units be for affordable housing, even if the project site is properly zoned for it.

We understand the desperate need for affordable housing. But Ferrell’s solution — denying people the ability to build on their own private property even when they’re within zoning laws — would result in expensive lawsuits that the city would lose after wasting taxpayer dollars.

Kelley’s appointment was controversial. But she has proven to be a capable commissioner who puts the city, not the police union, first. Her time on the commission will require scrutiny from the press and the public, but she is the right woman for the job.

For Boynton Beach City Commission District 4, the Sun Sentinel recommends Aimee Kelley.

Josemond

Kelley