April 2015
Serving Hypoluxo Island, South Palm Beach, Manalapan, Ocean Ridge, Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream and Coastal Delray Beach
Delray Beach
Along the Coast
New manager seeks money to improve downtown
By Jane Smith Delray Beach needs to provide Disney-style service for its downtown to maintain its image as a world-class destination, said Don Cooper, its new city manager. But achieving that high level of service is difficult and costly in a downtown that operates 18-20 hours a day, seven days a week. Compounding the challenge are the dozens of festivals, parades and art shows Cooper held every year in the downtown. Since more than 80 percent of the property taxes from downtown property owners — nearly $8 million a year — goes to the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, the city is looking to the CRA for more of that money. The City Commission and CRA board will hold a joint goalsetting session this month after holding individual sessions in February. An additional $1 per $1,000 of taxable value — $676,032 — goes to the DDA, which markets and promotes a defined downtown area within the CRA boundaries. “We do not traditionally do a joint goal-setting session,” Downtown Development Authority Executive Director Marjorie Ferrer responded via email, “but will put the question to the board at our May meeting, which is also being attended by the city manager to discuss the goals.” High on the city’s list of topics to discuss is the number of special events held downtown. “The original purpose was to bring people into the downtown, but now they are having a negative impact of people’s budgets,” Cooper told commissioners on Feb. 13. “Too much of a good thing?” In June, city commissioners will review a policy governing
Judge sides with county for inspector general lawsuit By Dan Moffett
C.P. Medore uses a little body language to try to get his putt to drop during the annual Brown Jug tournament. His Little Club team took the honors. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
It’s Little Club’s Brown Jug this year By Steve Pike The Brown Jug — symbol of golf supremacy in Gulf Stream — went to the Little Club on March 26. The host Little Club defeated neighbor St. Andrews Club 18-15 in the annual event that began in 1975. The tournament, which featured two-man teams from each club, was played in a Nassau point system, with the most points any team could get being three. A “tournament within a tournament’’ also was held, with each foursome competing in a Best Ball format. The Little Club team of John Lynch, Charles Begg, Henry Hagan and Peter Stockman recorded a 17-under score of 37 on the par-three layout (2,102 yards) to win that event. The Brown Jug is one of the more anticipated events of the year at each club. “It’s a fun event,’’ said St. Andrews Head See BROWN JUG on page 18
See DELRAY on page 19
Inside Whale watching
Keep an eye on the Atlantic for migrating right whales and their calves. Page H16
Volume 8 Issue 4
Just the ticket
Bicycle valet parking grows with popularity of Delray Beach Green Market. Page 27
The Brown Jug trophy is inscribed with decades of victories.
When Palm Beach County voters overwhelmingly approved the creation of an Inspector General’s Office in 2010, they made a binding contract with cities and towns that requires them to help pay for the new watchdog. That is the centerpiece of Circuit Judge Catherine Brunson’s 11-page ruling in the four-year legal fight between the county and a coalition of 14 municipalities over how the IG office should be funded. In her March 12 decision, Brunson sided with the county on almost every point of contention in the lawsuit. She dismissed the cities’ claim that the county was imposing an unlawful tax. She rejected the notion that municipal residents were victims of double taxation. She gave no weight to complaints about interfering with budgeting. She threw out the argument that sovereign immunity prohibits the county from interfering in how cities and towns govern themselves. Brunson, after deliberating nearly eight months since the August trial, sent out a relatively simple message to the plaintiff municipalities: The voters have spoken. Now deal with it. “The court ruled essentially that voters, by approving the referendum, executed a valid and binding contract on behalf of their municipalities to pay for the countywide program,” said Manalapan Town Attorney Keith Davis. “The court said the payments are not an unlawful tax but are in fact a user fee which the municipalities could have opted out of at the point of the vote on the referendum.” Delray Beach City Attorney Noel Pfeffer said there was “a lot of legal nuance” in the judge’s decision, as well as “both policy and legal overtones” that could impact the way governments interact with each other. “This ruling touches on four or five cornerstones of local government law with respect to cities’ municipal powers,” Pfeffer See LAWSUIT on page 6
April 201
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Summer Camp Guide
Camp list
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SunFest
‘Florida’s largest waterfront music and art festival’. Page AT11