Bring in state to verify that 'We are not broke'

Riviera Beach has been such a politically insular city for so long that city council members don't perceive how it resonates when they utter such wisdom as: "Yes, we have spent $7 million and don't have a cotton-pickin' thing to show for it. But we are not broke."

The fact that developers continue lining up rather than running away, despite gems such as that one from council chairwoman Liz Wade, shows why the state must step in to protect Riviera's long-disadvantaged residents before tens of millions more dollars are frittered away in the name of the city's multibillion-dollar redevelopment plan.

The Community Redevelopment Agency, which Ms. Wade also chairs, has $7 million in loans due this year yet not enough money to repay them. That belies the fresh start Riviera got in 1999 with a new council, which also serves as the CRA board, led by retired Judge Edward Rodgers, Donald Wilson and Mayor Michael Brown.

After years of political dysfunction, the city had come back to credibility. But no one, including Ms. Wade, who also was elected then, has provided the leadership to reform Riviera's business practices. Today, it's back to petty politics; the CRA board recently voted Mayor Brown and his criticisms off the dais, a seat he is suing to regain.

A real crime would be choice properties plucked and money frittered away as residents continue to suffer. Yet official arrogance, incompetence and indifference continue to fuel speculation that the city is for sale to the right developer with the right money who greases the right palms to get the right waterfront plums. With Judge Rodgers the only remaining voice of sanity on the CRA, the original aim of redevelopment to improve residents' lives no longer is clear.

Letting Marriott build multi-tower high-rises at the Ocean Mall on Singer Island, for example, is inconsistent with city and regional planning, and with the officials' oft-stated promises never to give away the public beach.

The revitalization plan should continue to be the subject of debate. But it seems viable only with the proper oversight to right the financial ship. Riviera officials have managed to unite redevelopment advocates and eminent-domain activists in a coalition that agrees only on 1) everyone being treated fairly in the plan that some estimates say could displace thousands, and 2) a subpoena-powered state look at the city's finances.

City officials prefer to ignore them and look ahead to Tuesday's discussion of developers' proposals for the downtown waterfront portion of the CRA. Judge Rodgers is correct that the state intervention only can help. The fact that his colleagues so oppose it shows how much it's needed.