On the five-member Delray Beach City Commission, two new members could have a major impact on the town’s future, for better or worse.
Will “The Village by the Sea” retain its charm and special character? Will a pro-growth majority be too cozy with developers and too eager to grant exceptions to the land development code? Will elected officials do their duty as fiscal watchdogs — even if it means offending bureaucrats?
The upcoming election on March 19 is absolutely pivotal to the future of this city, where political tensions are always barely beneath the surface. Voters will choose two commissioners and a mayor on the same ballot where Republicans will surely affirm Donald Trump as their choice for president.
But it’s these city races that will determine the quality of life in Delray Beach for years to come, and in two three-person races, we recommend a new face and a familiar one.
Seat 1: Tom Markert
Tom Markert, 66, a former corporate executive and first-time candidate, wins our recommendation.
He’s untested, but he’s also unbought and untethered to any political clique, and he brings a unique skill set to the job. His extensive corporate and research background (ACNielsen, Office Depot, Proctor & Gamble) is badly needed in a city with a history of fiscal challenges and what appears to be too few stringent fiscal controls. His platform has seven specific goals, and limiting growth and preserving the downtown historic district are high on that list — a good sign.
“As good as Delray has been over the past 20 years at growing, we can lose it all in a heartbeat by making careless mistakes with overdeveloping in certain areas. We cannot do that,” Markert told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board in an online interview.
A straight talker and a stickler for adhering to strategic plans, he described the current commission as far too generous at granting “a million exceptions” to development projects, and cited the gridlock at the intersection of Congress and Atlantic avenues as very bad and getting worse.
Markert is one of five candidates in this cycle who boycotted a recent Chamber of Commerce candidate forum after questioning the Chamber’s neutrality in the mayor’s race. The five instead participated in a competing one, held at the same time.
Candidate Jim Chard, 79, knows the city very well, has a master’s in urban planning from Harvard and lost a race for mayor to Shelly Petrolia in 2018. He also looks better on paper. He supports multi-tenant housing, a largely unproven group-living concept, and hired as his campaign manager a lobbyist for the prime mover behind the multi-tenant housing idea in Delray Beach.
Tennille DeCoste, 46, is on paid leave as human resources director for Boynton Beach after accusing the city manager there of racially motivated statements after the city launched an investigation into her job performance. She earlier held the same position in Delray, but resigned, citing an “unstable” working environment. That track record raises questions about her ability to flourish in a collegial political environment.
Seat 3: Juli Casale
Only one year ago, Delray Beach voters elected two new commissioners. They unseated Juli Casale, who had our editorial endorsement, and replaced her with Rob Long.
Now Casale, 55, is making a comeback, and we believe she would be a much more diligent safeguard of city finances and of the city’s character than either of her opponents.
Casale pushed for a payroll audit as a commissioner, and a state audit later corroborated her suspicion that the city was undercharging neighboring Highland Beach by about $2 million for fire-rescue services. She describes city code enforcement problems as “constant and chronic.”
A skilled number cruncher, Casale would again approach her work with a healthy skepticism of the city bureaucracy, including City Manager Terrence Moore, and she faults the current commission, other than the term-limited Petrolia, for not asking more hard questions.
“There’s a number of problems in the city,” Casale said. “The biggest problem that you have is you have a commission that doesn’t want to jump in, figure them out and solve them.”
Also in this race is Anneze Barthelemy, 46, who was born in Haiti, is a social worker and community organizer who’s running an earnest, low-budget campaign. She continues her grassroots, door-to-door effort after refusing to bend to pressure from outside forces who pressured her to withdraw from the race with a written offer to help acquire city land for a Haitian-American community center.
The Sun Sentinel editorialized about the pressure tactics against Barthelemy in January. Casale and former Commissioner Shirley Johnson, a candidate for mayor, both publicly condemned the tactics.
Candidate Nick Coppola, 58, a retired electrician and a native of Valley Stream, N.Y., has done extensive community work, especially with vulnerable communities. Both opponents accuse him of being closely aligned with mayoral candidate Ryan Boylston, which Coppola strongly denies. (Boylston has a Coppola sign in his yard and the two men use the same political consultants.)
We rarely say this, but Coppola would likely contribute more to his community as a volunteer than as one of five commission members.
Voters should look at the bigger picture here. With two long-time incumbents, Petrolia and Adam Frankel, both being termed out in March, the commission will become less experienced. That is another reason to return Casale to City Hall, where her knowledge and tenacity, especially on financial matters, will serve taxpayers well.
Commissioners serve three-year terms and are paid $24,000 a year. Under Delray’s voting system, the top vote-getter in a race wins, regardless of how many candidates are running. In a three-way race as both of these are, if it’s very close, about 35% of the vote will be sufficient to win.
We will make our recommendation in the race for mayor on Sunday.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at .
