Numbers to be real test of insurance legislation

Property insurance was “the” issue for the special session of the Legislature in January, and it remains “an” issue during the regular session that begins today.
Legislators and Gov. Crist got justified credit two months ago for taking a first step toward reducing rates in exchange for higher overall public risk. Based on what has happened since that special session, however, it’s even clearer that property insurance reform must remain as much of a priority as property tax reform, the issue of the moment.

As news reports have shown, the rate “relief” from the special session will vary greatly and will underwhelm many Floridians who read last week’s state-issued prediction that rates could drop by an average of one-third.
The centerpiece of the bills in January was one that increased the amount of cheaper, state-subsidized reinsurance available to companies. Private reinsurance, which most carriers buy on the worldwide market to insure themselves, accounted for much of the premium increase last year. But State Farm Florida, one of the largest private home insurers, was getting low-cost reinsurance from its parent company in Illinois. State-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which now has the most policies in the state because private companies have canceled so many customers, has been buying reinsurance from the state.
As a result, those policyholders will see less reduction in their premiums. Indeed, the greater “savings” to Citizens customers probably will be from the state canceling two rate increases of 21 percent and 56 percent. Though the second was not justified, the first probably was necessary to build up Citizens’ resources. One early, key item for the Legislature will be to review the business plan from Citizens that would enable the company to sell “multi-peril” policies — wind, fire, theft, liability — in the high-risk zones where it now only can sell wind coverage. The extra revenue would help Citizens pay hurricane claims and reduce the need for more statewide assessments to cover losses.
Customers whose policies renew before June 1 may have to wait until next year for relief. Only after that date do companies have to factor the cost of cheaper reinsurance into their rate filings. A busy storm season could change that calculation.
Numbers were as plentiful as eggs at Easter when the Legislature estimated how much customers would save from the law that came out of the special session. Real numbers will hit Floridians during the eight-week regular session, and each number will be a gauge of how much work remains on property insurance “reform.”

Lake Worth: Pass supermajority vote

To prevent bad development projects, elected officials have to say “No” over and over. To allow bad development projects, elected officials have to say “Yes” just once.
Given what can be at stake, and given the recent record in Lake Worth, The Post recommends that voters make it a little harder for the city commission to say “Yes.” To do so, Lake Worth residents should say “Yes” to Charter Amendment 1 in Tuesday’s election.

The measure reads, “Adoption of a rezoning, comprehensive plan or plan amendment requires super-majority city commission approval.” If it passes, four out of the five commission votes will be required to approve the changes often required before major development projects can go forward.
Realtors and others oppose the charter change and predict that it will stifle growth. But requiring a supermajority, as the charter change would, actually is a more flexible tool than changes that would impose height limits or density caps. If the supermajority passes, developers still can get changes; they’ll just have to work harder — and perhaps submit better plans — to build the necessary consensus on the commission.
The supermajority measure is on the ballot because of 3-2 votes in 2005 that angered residents of Lake Osborne Heights. Despite strong opposition from that single-family neighborhood, the commission voted to annex a 4-acre property that was zoned for five units per acre, then immediately “upzoned” the property to allow a 40-townhome project with double the density.
The supermajority charter change could affect the latest beach proposal, which also has advanced on a series of 3-2 votes but still needs zoning approvals. Requiring four votes wouldn’t necessarily doom the project; it would require the developer to submit a plan that builds consensus, primarily by answering questions about access for residents. And if the beach plan fails, the onus will be on commissioners who voted against it to provide for beach improvements.
A second charter change on the ballot provides for “Elections for members of city commission to be held in November” instead of March. The idea is that turnout will be greater in every-other-year state elections. But what about that off year? And city elections can get lost in the welter of federal, state and county contests. The Post recommends a “No” vote.

Riviera Beach: Back Ocean Mall plan

Two charter amendments on Tuesday’s ballot, if passed by Riviera Beach voters, would undo the proposed $280 million makeover of the dilapidated Ocean Mall that fronts the public beach on Singer Island. Voters can limit leases on the publicly owned land to 50 years, and limit building height to five stories. With Riviera finally on the verge of fulfilling a major redevelopment promise, The Post recommends that residents vote NO.

One reason it has taken so long for anything to happen on the 11-acre mall site is the desire of many island residents to enjoy a sedate lifestyle. That also helps explain the petition initiative led mainly by island residents. Those citizens are as within their rights to challenge the mall plan as the city’s elected officials were to approve it. But the inability to get beyond some of the hype explains why the amendments are on the ballot.
“People were lied to to sign the petitions,” said City Councilwoman Vanessa Lee, “and lied to not to sign the petitions.”
Ultimately, most residents want the benefits of the mall’s redevelopment. Those benefits should include preservation of, and improved access to, the public beach. Dan Catalfumo’s proposed 28-story Marriott condo/hotel, plus shops and restaurants would remove a long-standing eyesore without encroaching onto the beach itself. Residents say the development not only would mean space to bring conferences and have their weddings, it also would eliminate their need to go to CityPlace or Downtown at the Gardens for a restaurant, or to take visiting family and friends to Fort Lauderdale and Miami Beach. Meanwhile, the tax revenue could finance overdue street improvements and the hiring of more police officers.
For those who want nothing to happen on the island, the project is far from ideal. But it is drastically scaled down from the three-tower proposal conceptually approval several years ago. The biggest reason to vote against these amendments — and thus for the Ocean Mall plan — is that opponents of the project don’t have an alternative that would be good for Riviera Beach. The city has fiddled for years with the 33-year-old mall. It may be on Singer Island, but the property belongs to the entire city, and the entire city will benefit from NO votes.

Open deals for Martin

It’s a simple suggestion: Make owners who want to develop property identify themselves by name.
The idea is so simple that it should have been made law years ago. But two Martin County lawyers who have asked county commissioners to make all investors in a piece of property identify themselves and disclose their interests got no support from the commission majority of Michael DiTerlizzi, Doug Smith, Lee Weberman, and often Susan Valliere. Only Sarah Heard supports ownership disclosure.

County rules now require property owners to provide a deed and identify themselves only by a company name, allowing the developers to hide behind names of attorneys or land planning firms. Virginia Sherlock and Howard Heims, who often represent clients opposing development, say the companies identified as owners often are “shell” companies owned by other firms. Tracking who stands to benefit financially from a development becomes difficult or impossible.
Commissioner Heard points out Palm Beach County, where ex-commission Chairman Tony Masilotti resigned because of a secret land deal that will send him to prison, now requires disclosure of ownership interest for each applicant and property owner seeking county approval. Without required disclosure, she said, “we could approve a development or make a (growth plan) amendment for an owner laundering money from illegal drug sales or terrorism support. … ”
Commissioner Weberman called suggestions to make owners identify themselves “a fishing expedition,” and said county forms requiring disclosure would make no difference to people determined to conceal information. Commissioner Smith said commissioners already disclose all their interests and Commissioner DiTerlizzi complained that the two lawyers were trying, unfairly, to tie Martin commissioners to the Palm Beach County scandal.
All those protests, however, miss the essential point: If a developer has a credible proposal, why would he or she be afraid to disclose the names of the investors? A land planner whose name is on many Martin development applications contends that it’s not commissioners’ business to know who owns the land. He is wrong. Whether a project gets approved can depend on who is involved, not just what is proposed. Since the decision affects the public, the public should know.

Go beyond the border on immigration reform

Guest-worker programs often have failed because they didn’t provide enough incentives for immigrants to participate. Why would a farmworker or construction laborer who could expect to earn minimum wage and get no benefits bother dealing with government red tape, fees and scrutiny without the promise of an attainable payoff for compliance with the system? If there’s no payoff, there’s no participation.

Yet two senior Bush administration officials are trying to sell Congress on another guest-worker program that doesn’t offer enough incentive to join. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that a path to legal status isn’t necessary to make workers participate. “I’m not sure everyone wants to be a U.S. citizen,” Mr. Gutierrez said. “Many just want to be able to work, and if they can work legally, one day they would like to go back home.”
Certainly, many immigrants want only the opportunity to work temporarily and then return to their native countries. But it’s doubtful that most of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already living in the United States — some of them for many years — would join a program that ultimately would send them home. Without a payoff in citizenship or permanent residency, attempts at reform will succeed only in creating a permanent underclass of people who live here, and thus have no stake here, or reason to embrace the country.
Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and John McCain, R-Ariz., addressed that problem last year when they proposed a reform bill that called for a six-year path to permanent residency, with the possibility of citizenship later. The government would require immigrants to undergo background checks, learn English and pay fines and back taxes. The bill passed the Senate but died an acrimonious death in the House because of fierce opposition from the election-minded, anti-reform-minded Republican majority. Sens. Kennedy and McCain are writing another version of the bill that they will bring forward soon, and both believe that the chances of passing legislation are better this year.
Besides having a Democratic majority in Congress that supports comprehensive reform, efforts to secure the U.S. Mexico border have shown signs of working. According to news reports, Border Patrol officials have found that they can reduce illegal crossing not only with fences and motion sensors but also with jail cells. Instead of capturing, then immediately releasing illegal immigrants in Mexico, the government is incarcerating them for weeks or as long as six months. At this point, the threat of jail time appears to be a deterrent.
The economic forces that drive illegal immigration, however, won’t change. Last week, The Miami Herald reported that some hotels in Miami-Dade County are seeking maids from as far away as Korea. Immigration reform has two essential parts: controlling the border and opening a way to permanent legal status. President Bush has said that he agrees. One hopes that Mr. Chertoff’s comments don’t represent a change in the president’s thinking.

Choose Lowe, Golden

Three good candidates are running to replace Nadine Burns as the District 3 city commissioner in Lake Worth. The Post recommends that voters elect Jo-Ann Golden on March 13. In District 1, The Post recommends incumbent Retha Lowe.

Ms. Golden correctly says that there’s “lots of animosity” in the city and on the commission and promises that “I can bring people together.” She notes that her “day job” as project manager for the Lake Worth Community Development Corp., a not-for-profit that builds affordable housing, involves “working with lots of folks.”
She will need to be ready to work with people, since she opposes the beach project agreement with Greater Bay that Commissioner Burns helped push through. Depending on who wins the other races and the outcome of a related referendum, Ms. Golden could become a swing vote on the beach plan. If that project doesn’t fly, Ms. Golden is committed to making improvements to the beach complex and has the temperament to make something happen eventually.
Ms. Golden has been heavily involved in city and community groups, including the Ad Hoc Code Committee and the Stakeholder’s Advisory Committee. Ms. Golden, who has a degree in Latin American studies, favors creating a labor center for immigrants based on the approach that is working in Jupiter . She thinks the electric utility upgrade should go forward.
Wes Blackman, also running in District 3, favors the beach proposal and has extensive service on Lake Worth boards. The third candidate, Drew Martin, is an environmental activist who retired after a career in the computer software industry. He opposes the beach project.
The Post gives Ms. Golden the edge on the expectation that she will be slightly more careful on growth than Mr. Blackman and slightly more pragmatic than Mr. Martin. The danger is that she could become a down-the-line opponent of growth.
In District 1, Commissioner Lowe voted for the beach project, wants to continue with the electric utility upgrade and supports creating an immigrant job center to match day laborers with employers. Her opponent — once again — is Ron Exline, who opposes the beach project and day labor center.
If reelected, Commissioner Lowe must renew efforts to get along with whoever is elected with her. The culture of animosity has crippled Lake Worth and must change for the city to progress.

No seat belt? Ticket

Irv Slosberg may be out of the Legislature, but one of his pet causes lives on.The former state senator tried for years to allow police to ticket drivers just for not wearing a seat belt. Currently, failure to belt up is a secondary offense, meaning that police can write a ticket only if they stop a driver for another violation.
House Bill 27, sponsored by Rep. Rich Glorioso, R-Tampa, already has cleared a committee. The bill, which has a Senate companion, is named for Mr. Slosberg’s late daughter, Dori, who died in a car crash in 1996, and Katie Marchetti, a 16-year-old from the Tampa area who last year was thrown from a car and killed. Neither girl was wearing a seat belt.
In previous years, some minority legislators opposed such legislation, fearing racial profiling, but now there is less resistance. Some may see it as excessive government, but one study calculated that it could save about 1,200 lives in Florida.
Many other people could be spared extensive, crippling and costly injuries that drive up insurance costs. All that would be worth a new law.

Make tax plan for 2007 better tax plan for 2008

The Legislature opens its session Tuesday with millions of Floridians begging for the state to do anything on property taxes. As House Minority Leader Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, says, “My worry is just that: We may do anything.”

At the moment, anything  is what Rep. Gelber correctly calls an idea that looks good from afar, but is far from good.  He means the three-phase proposal from House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, that would cut local government revenue, abolish the property tax for homesteads and raise the state sales tax from 6 cents to
8Ω cents. All of that could happen this year, and the result would be bad for Florida. Here s a look at each phase of Rep. Rubio s proposal.
Phase 1  The Legislature would roll back the amount local governments, excluding school districts, could collect from property taxes to the 2000-2001 budget year. Annual spending increases would be limited under a formula tied to population growth and inflation. The limit would not affect bond payments. Local government could exceed the spending cap with a supermajority vote or through a referendum.
For all the claims by Rep. Rubio and other House leaders, this approach is arbitrary. They chose 2000-2001 because that s just before the housing bubble pushed up property values, and tax bills. And the formula to limit spending is based on two false premises: that government can budget like the average family and that all local government spending is voluntary.
In fact, families don t have to negotiate union contracts with sheriff s deputies, police and firefighters; counties and cities do. Families can delay construction when costs rise sharply; counties and cities often can t. Families can cut spending on their own; counties and cities must take expenses the Legislature dumps on them. According to the Florida Association of Counties, decisions in Tallahassee on probation violations and juvenile detention have shifted $400 million in costs to counties. One of Gov. Crist s priorities, the so-called anti-murder bill,  could dump another $200 million as counties have to open more jail space for probation violators.
Twelve small, rural counties are at the legal taxing limit of $10 per $1,000 of assessed value. Most of their budgets go for public safety. If they face property-tax cuts, there is no way to make up the difference.
Phase 2  Through a constitutional amendment, voters would abolish the property tax for homesteads. The amendment also would limit state spending but provide a way to increase revenue for schools.
The Save Our Homes amendment has shifted much of the tax burden to owners of commercial property and second homes because Save Our Homes doesn t cap their annual assessments. Those people would get some help from Phase 1, but abolishing property taxes would make the tax shift worse. If local government had to exceed the spending cap, only part of the population would pay all of the difference. Homesteaders with the largest houses, who get most of the Save Our Homes benefit, would get even more from abolition of the property tax. They also would not be part of any debate over county or city spending.
Phase 3  If voters abolish the property tax, the Legislature would raise the state sales tax 2Ω cents. In theory, that added revenue would make up for the estimated $8 billion in lost property tax revenue.
Perhaps it would, but that s just a guess. More problematic, sales taxes in Florida can fluctuate more year-to-year than property taxes. If the Legislature had to decide between sales-tax revenue for the state budget and local government, the state budget would be the priority, leaving the locals short.
There are other good arguments against raising the sales tax. It could hurt retailers, especially since almost every county has raised the sales tax for local projects. If the Hurricane Catastrophe Fund needs money to pay claims, one good source would be the sales tax. Finally, the sales tax is regressive; it falls harder on those with less money because they spend a greater portion of their income.
What, then, should the Legislature do? The most important thing is the hardest: Wait.
Because of understandable public pressure, the Legislature wants to act on taxes this year. But we re skeptical that in 60 days, Tallahassee can craft a plan that would make things better, not just create problems for a future Legislature.
Plus, the governor, Senate president and House speaker just appointed the 25 members of the Tax and Budget Reform Commission. Under the constitution, the commission can make recommendations to the Legislature or place amendments on the 2008 ballot without the Legislature s approval, insulating the commission from politics. That would mean a year s wait, but also a year of study that could separate good ideas from bad ideas.
Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, says his chamber won t offer a tax proposal. The House, he said, will be the architects.  The Senate will be the master carpenters.  Sen. Pruitt s approach means that, practically speaking, the Legislature will be working off Rep. Rubio s plan, which the chairman of the Senate Finance and Tax Committee calls bold.  It is that, but bold  doesn t necessarily mean good.  Other ideas may emerge, but doing nothing this year may beat doing anything.

Clemens over Drautz

While Lake Worth has made some progress on longstanding problems, the impression still is of a city falling apart. So many staff members have quit or been fired that it’s a miracle that the lights are on in city hall.

What Lake Worth does from here on beach redevelopment, growth rules, illegal immigrant labor and utility upgrades is important. But the most important job is building the kind of competent, stable staff that Lake Worth needed long before this. The Post believes that Jeff Clemens is the mayoral candidate best qualified to help the city choose a new manager, and then work out the kind of budget necessary to pay for the services residents deserve.
Mr. Clemens, a government consultant, is a former chairman of the city’s community redevelopment agency. He says the city should “move forward” on the beach redevelopment plan worked out with Greater Bay, though he acknowledges that “financing is going to be a huge pitfall.” He also understands that the beach issue is very divisive and that “it might come down to having to go to referendum.”
If the deal with Greater Bay falls through, either because of financing or eroded support from the council or the public, Mr. Clemens has the flexibility and background to keep working on it to ensure some improvements at the beach. Mr. Clemens is pro-development, but not reckless. While on the CRA, he voted against the massive, out-of-place Lucerne project.
Marc Drautz, the incumbent, won the job two years ago with no political experience. He correctly has pushed for a job center for immigrants based on Jupiter’s model. But overall, his tenure has been rocky and divisive, reaching a low point when he failed to initial documents for the beach project, which he opposes.
Mr. Clemens supports the Jupiter labor center model, and he correctly thinks that Lake Worth should move ahead on its electric upgrade, a position that sets him apart from another candidate, William Coakley. The other mayoral candidates in the March 13 race are: Mary Lindsey, who fills her proper niche as a budget critic; John Jordan, who opposes the labor center; and Andrew Procyk, who seems to have run on a whim.

No details, no deal

Boynton Beach still doesn’t have enough information about the Heart of Boynton redevelopment plan. But Boynton Beach is in a better position to know whether the city will get enough information.

Because of comments made before the city commission’s Feb. 13 meeting, there was a chance that Mayor Jerry Taylor and commissioners would change the structure of the Community Redevelopment Agency board and give themselves more direct control over negotiations. Mayor Taylor and others were unhappy that the CRA had not reached a development agreement with Intown Partners, which the CRA chose in August as the Heart of Boynton developer.
In fact, Intown had not provided enough specifics about the Seacrest Village project along the Martin Luther King Boulevard Corridor for the CRA to decide responsibly whether a public commitment of perhaps $30 million would be in Boynton Beach’s interest. So, rather than tinker not just needlessly but irresponsibly with the CRA, the commission asked City Manager Kurt Bressner and City Attorney Jim Cherof to get involved in negotiations with Intown. The first city/CRA/Intown meeting took place on Feb. 16. CRA Director Lisa Bright called it “an excellent discussion.”
Based on a summation from Ms. Bright, several points did become clearer. The developers want to build 40 housing units per acre, double the original density. Market-rate homes would sell in the $300,000 range, aimed at those who would like to live a “little downtown.” The first phase would begin on 9 acres on the west side of the development area. The developers want to keep, for 15 years, 90 percent of the tax revenue generated by the project.
But no follow-up meeting has been scheduled. The city and the CRA don’t have the joint venture agreement between Intown and the other members of its team, Torti Gallas and Partners and McCormack Baron Salazar. That document would confirm that Intown has the money to complete the project. The city and CRA also don’t have the development agreement spelling out terms of the deal.
Last week, Torti Gallas did send a breakdown of residential, office and retail space through the three phases of Seacrest Village, plus estimates on parking. As Mr. Bressner noted after the Feb. 16 meeting, however, he and the others need all information “if the city is to provide an accurate assessment of costs.” In other words, the commission asked for a second opinion, and that opinion agrees with the CRA’s.

Make lab school work

Construction started two weeks ago on the long-awaited charter laboratory school at Tradition, the large planned community development in Port St. Lucie west of Interstate 95. The school will live up to its billing, however, only if it serves more than Tradition.

A joint venture of the St. Lucie County School District and Florida Atlantic University, the charter lab school is supposed to train teachers and research and develop new teaching methods. The school will serve about 1,600 students in kindergarten through eighth grade and cost an estimated $30 million. The state is providing $15 million toward construction, plus a portion of operating expenses.
St. Lucie School Board members praise the lab school as a draw to students from throughout the region and have worked to ensure that it will differ from the Alexander D. Henderson University School in Boca Raton. Critics have noted that Henderson, a lab school on the campus of FAU, offers its small, mostly white population a private school experience at no charge. It also has failed to come up with innovative teaching practices.
Officials say the school at Tradition, which still lacks a name, will be better. The St. Lucie lab school will draw from the county’s diverse population of African-American and Hispanic students, to follow state guidelines. The district will provide transportation for students who live far from the school, St. Lucie School Board member Kathryn Hensley said. Henderson students must provide their own transportation, which gives affluent families an edge. Students won’t be assigned to the new school but will be drawn at random from many areas. “No seats will be set aside solely for Tradition students,” she said. Applications will be accepted via a Web site and outreach programs starting in July.
“We already know what rich white kids can do,” Ms. Hensley said. “We have to have a cross section of the population to find the best approaches to deal with all students.” St. Lucie schools recently have begun new programs to diagnose and solve learning problems in the county’s classrooms. The Tradition school will teach those techniques. The hope is that some of those teachers will seek jobs in St. Lucie when they graduate.
The school board has tried to keep the lab school from being exclusive. If it succeeds, the school could help more than its own students and teachers.

City officials indulge in criminal distortion

South Florida never will find solutions to its crime problem until public officials admit there is one.
Denial and politically motivated distortion only make it more difficult for governments to make the streets safer and reduce the teen violence that has grown exponentially in recent years. West Palm Beach and Riviera Beach are two of the worst cities for violent crime in Palm Beach County, yet people running the cities dismiss residents’ complaints and insist nothing out of the ordinary is going on.

Mayor Lois Frankel, who is running for reelection in West Palm Beach, points to statistics compiled by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement that show the overall crime total in the city has dropped 21 percent between 2002 and 2005. What the mayor doesn’t say is the reason: Theft in the city fell 29 percent during those four years. However, the number of murders soared from seven in 2002 to 22 in 2005, an increase of 214 percent. Rapes rose 27 percent during the same period.
During a campaign debate, Mayor Frankel downplayed the rash of murders as “some children who are killing themselves, each other, with guns.” Residents who come forward during city commission meetings to talk about crime in their neighborhoods are dismissed as malcontents. “There are some folks who believe that, the more complaining, the more resources you’re going to get,” the mayor says, “and that’s how they like to highlight things.”
Violent crime in Palm Beach County rose 11 percent in 2006, and in Riviera Beach, it increased about 38 percent. On Wednesday, City Manager Bill Wilkins tried to tell state Rep. Priscilla Taylor, D-West Palm Beach, that there was nothing to worry about. “I don’t think Riviera Beach is different from any other community in this country in terms of crime,” Mr. Wilkins said. It was a banal assessment that drew sharp words from Rep. Taylor, who reminded Mr. Wilkins that writing off crime as an unsolvable national problem is unacceptable. “What I’m trying to do is get involved,” she said, and then asked the question that matters: “What’s being done?”
West Palm Beach is trying to hire more police officers and has enacted an anti-gang ordinance. Riviera Beach Police Chief Clarence Williams says he needs at least a dozen more officers and initiatives to get guns off the streets. City leaders owe the public more candor and less self-serving spin.

Goodbye Jensen flavor, hello 'concrete canyon'

In Martin County, what developers want, developers get. A majority of commissioners last week showed that the county can’t be trusted to stand by any deal it makes.

The three — Michael DiTerlizzi, Lee Weberman and Doug Smith — gave a three-year extension to a developer who failed to meet a deadline and tossed away a chance to soften the blow of a dense development many residents consider to be a big mistake for Jensen Beach.
Renar Development, which was supposed to complete 53 condos, a parking garage and studio by last Sunday, won the three-year extension. The developer completed only the first phase, which includes 32 condos in a massive building near the foot of the Frank Wacha Jr. Bridge.
The project is out of sync with Jensen Beach, an eclectic community of artists and pioneer families, old Florida homes and unusual shops and restaurants. The county could have bought back any unfinished part of the project for the original land price, plus 10 percent. Commissioners could have built a park or blocked the additional condos, which make an already intense development even more dense. Instead, the majority ignored the deadlines and gave Renar an extension to 2010 to finish the three-story project, known as Renar River Place.
Slow-growth activists in the Jensen Beach Group urged commissioners to reconsider. Residents have complained that the existing buildings and those planned for the second phase are too tall, that the development will generate too much traffic and that driving along Pineapple Drive between the buildings makes motorists feel as if they are in a “concrete canyon.” Others called the development “Boca North” and said it would be more appropriate for Palm Beach County.
County Attorney Steve Fry will negotiate a new contract with the extended timetable. The second phase is supposed to include an 11,000-square-foot performing arts studio, plus the additional condos and parking garage. Commissioners made two suggestions for the new contract: Reduce the height of the parking garage and require the developers to build the public benefit portions before building any more condos.
Both are good suggestions. But the commission now has a track record of backing off requirements and deadlines for Renar River Place. Why would the new contract’s requirements be binding when the old ones were ignored?

An unsatisfying verdict

Jay Levin pleaded guilty in 2004 to manslaughter for shooting Mark Drewes after the 16-year-old played a prank on Levin’s doorstep. So, a Palm Beach County jury that on Thursday ordered Levin to pay $750,000 to Mark’s parents concluded the obvious: Of course, Levin was responsible for the shooting death of Mark Drewes.

But after deliberating over four days, the jury did not order Levin to pay Luciana and Gregory Drewes punitive damages. Despite attorney Robert Montgomery’s description of the verdict as “a vindication,” the jury’s decision did not reflect the level of vengeance that Mr. Montgomery sought. And, unfortunately, the verdict against Levin likely will have little bearing on the behavior of the next armed homeowner.
Mr. Montgomery repeated sensationalistic strategies he used during the civil lawsuit he filed on behalf of Lake Worth Middle School teacher Barry Grunow’s widow. At Mr. Montgomery’s request, a sworn-in Levin, like then-13-year-old Nathaniel Brazill who shot Mr. Grunow, held the gun he used to shoot Mark, aiming it as a painful reminder to the victim’s family, hoping to invoke an emotional reaction from the jury.
But unlike the Grunow case, Mr. Montgomery did not attempt this time to send a message to gun-makers and sellers. In that case, Mr. Montgomery and Pam Grunow set out to punish the distributor of the Saturday Night Special used to kill Mr. Grunow. An appeals court ruled in 2005 the distributor was not responsible. In this case, Levin’s actions were the narrower issue.
The conflicted jury — three initially sided with Levin, and three with the Dreweses — perhaps reflects a changing public sentiment about the extent to which homeowners can go to protect their property.
Just as death did not fit the “crime” of Mark Drewes’ childish trespassing prank, neither did Levin’s punishment of 52 weekends in jail fit the crime of manslaughter. Why would someone who fears for his life open the door?
Because the verdict will do nothing to change the behavior of anyone who makes, sells or uses guns, it is not satisfying to the public. Because the verdict cannot revive Mark Drewes, it cannot be satisfying to his parents.
But Gregory and Luciana Drewes expressed comfort in finally getting “an agreement,” Mr. Drewes said, “that it was wrong.” On that conclusion, there is no debate.

Lake Park: Give Carey a new term

Jeff Carey has proven to be an excellent addition to the town commission that is turning around Lake Park. Voters should let him continue the dedication he has shown since he was elected to the Group B seat two years ago.

Jeffrey Baumer, who also is running, is on probation after being charged last year with abusing the elderly in the assisted living home he operated in the town. His motivation to run is, “Pretty much, I want to clear my name.”
Mr. Carey already is keeping promises to help increase property values and bring back the sense of community he experienced growing up in the town. Several years ago, Lake Park was cash-strapped and needed a state audit to make sense of its books. The town now has $3million in reserve, Mr. Carey said.
New Target, Lowe’s home improvement and Wal-Mart stores, part of the western redevelopment, “have helped us out,” he said. Residents can look forward to similar revitalization along Park Avenue, he said. One Park Place is going up, while the lighting, landscaping and enhanced alley parking will help bring back such businesses as the beloved Park Avenue BBQ & Grille.
The hiring this year of former South Miami City Manager Maria Davis holds promise for more progress. “She’s on the ball,” he said, in a position that has been a sore spot for more than a decade. With the manager on board, the town has the point person needed to resolve such issues as lingering problems with the marina construction. The marina finally is complete, however. Mr. Carey is looking to provide the opportunity for people to get a meal there but doesn’t want anything on a grand scale that the parking space cannot accommodate.
While serving as the town’s representative to the Northlake Boulevard Task Force, whose next phase is moving west, Mr. Carey has kept his promises to promote more festivals in the town. The results include the Veterans Day car show and the Martin Luther King Jr. Day that used to happen only if sponsored by a resident. Voters should reelect Mr. Carey, who notes that theirs is “the only town around without its own gym or community center,” because he knows the issues, and the needs.

Develop county policy for traffic near schools

In contrast to elementary and middle schools, the state doesn’t require most high schools to impose special traffic zones. As a story in The Post explained last Sunday, “Teens walking to school are thought to be mature enough to brave traffic on their own.”
Does that make sense?

Let’s just say that any policy predicated on the maturity of teens — whether they’re walking or driving — is going to have more than a few rough collisions with reality. In fact, any policy that banks on adult drivers displaying maturity is going to have problems. In reporting on traffic chaos at Palm Beach Central High School, The Post noted that parents trying to avoid slow traffic at the official drop-off point often are ticketed for illegally dropping their kids off in through lanes outside the school. There’s similar risky behavior at many high schools where traffic can stack up past the entrances.
Traffic problems around all types of schools have not received the comprehensive study they deserve. That much is obvious from recent serious incidents. A 12-year-old boy was killed Feb. 23 on his way to Boca Raton Elementary School. Also in February, two students were hit by cars near Santaluces High, one of the few high schools to have a slow-speed zone because it also is near an elementary school.
Getting parents and kids to follow common-sense rules everybody should know would go a long way toward avoiding many accidents. The fifth-grader who died was attempting to cross the street just a block from where he could have crossed with a crossing guard. Students hit near Santaluces were not using a nearby crosswalk. Police started issuing jaywalking tickets near Santaluces. As with Palm Beach Central, however, enforcement is spotty and reactive. You’d like to think that accidents would have gotten the attention of teens and their parents. But where that doesn’t work, giving out traffic tickets every day might be the only effective education effort.
Another part of the problem is that the school district, the county and cities collect data on accidents near schools but don’t analyze it. Governments should work together to determine the problem areas.
Students often complain that signals don’t allow enough time for students to cross. That should be relatively easy to fix. It will be harder to deal with design flaws that cause traffic to back up onto main roads, such as Forest Hill Boulevard near Palm Beach Central or Military Trail in Palm Beach Gardens near Dwyer High School. In those cases, slowing traffic or getting police to direct it might be necessary.
Five mornings a week, throngs of inexperienced drivers converge on county high schools, where they encounter sleepy, distracted pedestrians. If schools and police slow things down and provide better supervision, fewer of those students are going to get hurt.

Create new downtown for new Port St. Lucie

It’s an exciting time for Port St. Lucie. Today, the city breaks ground on its first — and with luck, not last — biotech venture, Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Studies. On Thursday, politicians donned hard hats to start City Center, Port St. Lucie’s first real downtown.
Both are milestones, but the downtown could fulfill a dream.

Billed as the city’s “heart and soul,” it will include seven-story buildings, lower-priced condos, stores, offices, restaurants, a civic center and a plaza. The urban center will rise on the site of the demolished Village Green shopping center at U.S. 1 and Walton Road.
Some have trouble believing that “downtown” and “Port St. Lucie” can go together. After all, General Development Corp., which designed much of the original city, built Village Green to be a commerce center when it opened in 1981. It never took off. The new “downtown,” though, seems to have the best of everything. Developer George de Guardiola is transplanting ideas and lessons learned from West Palm Beach’s CityPlace and Jupiter’s Abacoa, creating a new mix of condos, offices and shops to go with a municipal complex.
Officials hope that the downtown will become a meeting place, a hub with an identity that Port St. Lucie’s 160,000 residents, who now live in a 113-square-mile suburb, can embrace. The city’s part of the $400million project, to be completed in 2008, will include police and city offices, along with the first two of four four-story parking garages.
The developer will add three seven-story buildings with ground-floor shops and upper-story apartments and condos. Three large restaurants and a five-story office building, copied from one in West Palm Beach, are to open in 2009. By December 2012, the completed 70-acre project is supposed to include narrow streets, outdoor cafes and other features borrowed from Abacoa. The plans don’t include features unique to Port St. Lucie, but the overall mix will differ from the other developments.
While the $85 million cost to taxpayers for the municipal portion is high, Port St. Lucie has wanted new offices and a civic center in the eastern portion of the city. A parkway planned from Interstate 95 to the center eventually will give motorists from western areas a direct route downtown. The parks and recreation department plans weekly events at the downtown’s outdoor plaza and fountain.
Mr. de Guardiola, attempting to rectify mistakes in other developments, plans to build housing before adding retail space. City Manager Don Cooper has planned safeguards to allow another developer to take over quickly if this one fails. While changes in state tax policy could cut city revenues and affect the project, Port St. Lucie is right to move ahead. This dream needs to become reality.

For Jupiter Town Council: Harrison over Harris

Jupiter residents have a difficult but welcome choice on March 13 between two excellent candidates for the South District town council seat vacated by Don Daniels. Because of her thorough grasp of municipal issues, The Post recommends Wendy Harrison over David Harris.

Ms. Harrison, a former town employee, has expertise in redevelopment and environmental preservation, two areas of importance to town voters. Since earning a master’s degree in governmental administration in 1986, she has been a finance consultant for the city of Philadelphia, an aide for Tequesta, solid waste director for Martin County and special projects manager and a neighborhood coordinator for Jupiter. Currently, Ms. Harrison isn’t working, but she serves on the Jupiter Historic Resources Board and helped pass the town’s recent $17million environmental preservation bond issue.
Mr. Harris brings a broad perspective from his role as consultant with the Funders’ Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities in Miami and his former position as South Florida philanthropy chief for the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He serves on numerous community boards, including the Children’s Services Council. He lost a council race three years ago to Todd Wodraska. Despite withdrawing before election day because of health reasons, he got 49percent of the vote in 2005 against Mr. Daniels.
Both candidates support the town’s day labor center to move illegal immigrant workers off the streets, both live in Abacoa, both have advanced degrees and both support the town’s Riverwalk redevelopment effort. While they agree on most issues, Mr. Harris generally takes a more esoteric line to Ms. Harrison’s pragmatic approach.
Mr. Harris has big ideas that could help the city. Ms. Harrison stands out because of her very specific knowledge of what it takes to work successfully within the confines of city government. Three other council incumbents — Mayor Karen Golonka, Jim Kuretski and Mr. Wodraska — were reelected without opposition.

Turmoil in Belle Glade

Why would a town such as Belle Glade add self-destruction to its long list of problems?
The poor farm community of 15,000 always has struggled because of its isolation on the south shore of Lake Okeechobee. Belle Glade is 20 miles even from the fringes of eastern Palm Beach County. In 1960, Edward R. Murrow set Harvest of Shame, his CBS News exposé of migrant farmworkers, in Belle Glade. In 1989, the woman who ran the public health center said the area’s African-American population faced extinction because of AIDS.

And always, there has been the issue of race. In 2003, a man hanged himself in Belle Glade, but rumors flew that he actually had been murdered by police. A two-day coroner’s inquest ruled the death a suicide. Politically, though, Belle Glade remains polarized. The city commission is split into a pair of unyielding factions: two whites and a Hispanic aligned against two blacks.
Three weeks ago, this split resulted in the firing of the third city manager in seven months, and the eighth in eight years. The three-member majority hired Vince Finizio, who lasted three months as Pahokee’s manager. More than a decade ago, Mr. Finizio turned his four-hour suspension as a Boynton Beach engineering inspector into a lawsuit that cost the city $600,000.
Mr. Finizio knows turmoil, and apparently embraces it. This week, he declared that he would cut off water service to several hundred residents and businesses. When Palm Beach County offered grant money to the residents, Mr. Finizio wouldn’t disclose their names. When U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, intervened, Mr. Finizio demanded $500,000 to keep the water flowing and called the congressman’s chief of staff a “punk.”
Unfortunately, the state can’t take over a municipality just because of chaotic government. There has to be rampant corruption or a fiscal crisis. But Belle Glade, to the detriment of its citizens, gives every indication of being unable to run without adult supervision.

Give Florida's ex-felons a reason to stay straight

The Legislature has portrayed itself as tough on crime when refusing to approve automatic restoration of civil rights for ex-felons. But legislators who engage in this demagoguery don’t make Floridians safer. In fact, they invite criminal behavior. Ex-felons who are denied occupational licenses and ostracized from society commit new crimes more often. Taxpayers house and feed repeat offenders who could have led productive lives.

Gov. Crist said last week that he wants to follow through on his campaign promise to automatically restore rights for felons who have done their time and paid their restitution. That will mean trumping his own party in the Legislature. The governor may use an executive order to restore rights for most of the state’s 700,000 ex-felons. He has support from two of the three Florida Cabinet members: Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink and Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson. Attorney General Bill McCollum opposes automatic restoration and wants to fix the system of granting clemency by adding more workers.
Mr. McCollum misses the point. Automatic restoration would not compromise safeguards the state can impose. Violent offenders still could face limits on their rights. Felons who had used firearms, for example, could be denied licenses to own guns, and the state could restrict sexual offenders from holding some jobs. Licensing agencies still would be able to say no.
About one-third of the disenfranchised ex-felons are African-American, which is consistent with the oppressive law’s history. Florida passed it after the Civil War to prevent former slaves from voting. Besides Florida, only Kentucky and Virginia do not restore rights automatically. The clemency process is time-consuming and expensive. Applicants must appear before the governor and Cabinet for approval. With thousands of cases backlogged in the system, it can take two years just to get a response.
Sen. Mandy Dawson, D-Fort Lauderdale, is sponsoring a bill for a referendum on a state constitutional amendment to allow automatic restoration. Sen. Dawson has tried to pass the bill for several years, but some legislators believe that their constituents will confuse fairness with coddling criminals, and some Republicans believe that the change would help Democrats, who get most of the black vote.
Gov. Crist says simply that a criminal who has paid his debt to society should participate in citizenship again. If it takes an executive order to correct this 140-year-old wrong, the governor should use the power of his office and do it.

The right Bush reversal

Fortunately, Vice President Dick Cheney was not injured by the bomb that demonstrated how misguided the Bush administration has been on fighting terrorism.

Tuesday’s blast occurred outside the main American military base in Kabul, Afghanistan. Until then, the White House could say with a straight face that while there wasn’t calm in most of the country that sheltered the 9/11 killers, at least the capital was secure. Now, even that claim is hollow. Worse, the attack came just after reports that Al-Qaeda has regrouped just across the border in Pakistan, and the Taliban may launch a spring offensive. Britain is drawing down troops in Iraq but sending more to Afghanistan.
So, the sooner the United States can get out of Iraq, the sooner we can refocus on Afghanistan, which President Bush all but abandoned for his misadventure in Iraq. To that end, it was encouraging to hear Tuesday that the White House will follow the Iraq Study Group’s recommendation to talk with Syria and Iran about how to stabilize Iraq.
Technically, Iraq is planning and hosting the conference, which Syria said Wednesday it will attend. Iran has not committed. The very big news, though, is the U.S. participation, since Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said only last month that negotiating with Iran would be like giving in to extortion. But if there’s no guarantee of progress, there’s no reason not to try, and that goes for both countries.
For all his bombast, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is under pressure from Iranian masses over the country’s feeble economy and Iranian clerics who worry about the country becoming isolated because of Western pressure. And while Mr. Bush’s “surge” in Iraq has meant fewer bodies for now on the streets of Baghdad, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell told the Senate this week that “security and political trends in Iraq are moving in a negative direction.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said again that the U.S. faces “four wars” in Iraq, and possibly a fifth: criminal operations around Baghdad.
Ideally, sincere diplomacy with countries the White House has shunned would lead to progress on more than Iraq. Syria has shown interest in talking with Israel about a long-term peace deal, but the Bush administration has told Israel not to proceed. If Iran can become part of the answer for Iraq, that could lead to negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. Even when thousands of warheads were aimed at us, we never stopped talking with the Soviet Union. Doing so was in our national interest. Now, it is in our interest to talk with Iran and Syria.

The right Bush reversal

Fortunately, Vice President Dick Cheney was not injured by the bomb that demonstrated how misguided the Bush administration has been on fighting terrorism.

Tuesday’s blast occurred outside the main American military base in Kabul, Afghanistan. Until then, the White House could say with a straight face that while there wasn’t calm in most of the country that sheltered the 9/11 killers, at least the capital was secure. Now, even that claim is hollow. Worse, the attack came just after reports that Al-Qaeda has regrouped just across the border in Pakistan, and the Taliban may launch a spring offensive. Britain is drawing down troops in Iraq but sending more to Afghanistan.
So, the sooner the United States can get out of Iraq, the sooner we can refocus on Afghanistan, which President Bush all but abandoned for his misadventure in Iraq. To that end, it was encouraging to hear Tuesday that the White House will follow the Iraq Study Group’s recommendation to talk with Syria and Iran about how to stabilize Iraq.
Technically, Iraq is planning and hosting the conference, which Syria said Wednesday it will attend. Iran has not committed. The very big news, though, is the U.S. participation, since Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said only last month that negotiating with Iran would be like giving in to extortion. But if there’s no guarantee of progress, there’s no reason not to try, and that goes for both countries.
For all his bombast, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is under pressure from Iranian masses over the country’s feeble economy and Iranian clerics who worry about the country becoming isolated because of Western pressure. And while Mr. Bush’s “surge” in Iraq has meant fewer bodies for now on the streets of Baghdad, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell told the Senate this week that “security and political trends in Iraq are moving in a negative direction.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates said again that the U.S. faces “four wars” in Iraq, and possibly a fifth: criminal operations around Baghdad.
Ideally, sincere diplomacy with countries the White House has shunned would lead to progress on more than Iraq. Syria has shown interest in talking with Israel about a long-term peace deal, but the Bush administration has told Israel not to proceed. If Iran can become part of the answer for Iraq, that could lead to negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. Even when thousands of warheads were aimed at us, we never stopped talking with the Soviet Union. Doing so was in our national interest. Now, it is in our interest to talk with Iran and Syria.

An overreach on secrets

Journalists who reported the “heckuva job” Michael “Brownie” Brown was doing after Hurricane Katrina could have been prosecuted and jailed. That is just one potential unintended consequence of the vague classified-information standard proposed by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

Section 798 of the Espionage Act already prohibits unauthorized disclosure of communications intelligence information. Ten years in prison is the penalty, regardless of whether there was any intent to harm the nation. So strong is the statute that one need only intend to leak classified intelligence about communications activities, knowing that it could compromise public safety, to be subject to prosecution.
Sen. Kyl’s overly broad amendment would criminalize disclosure of any information “concerning efforts by the United States to identify, investigate or prevent terrorist activity.” By that standard, public meetings for discussing health threats, local emergency response planning or other public safety matters could be illegal. Benign information routinely discussed in the media, such as government financing of those activities, could be linked to anti-terrorism efforts and other security activities, even if the disclosure is made without intent to harm the U.S.
In fact, Sen. Kyl’s amendment would preclude full and open public debate of bills such as his. So it is noteworthy that there have been no public hearings or discussions of the proposal he plans to introduce today before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The amendment that he intends to attach to the completely separate SB 236 not only would compromise the carefully constructed existing Section 798. It also would establish the U.S. equivalent of the British “Official Secrets Act,” whose passage this nation was fortunate barely to avoid in 2000.
Since then, it has become only more obvious how important it is for the American public to understand how our government fights terrorism. Instead, Sen. Kyl’s overreach would serve at best as a convenient tool for hiding facts or actions that could embarrass all the “Brownies” in the U.S. bureaucracy.