LAKE WORTH BEACH city officials are canceling an agreement, approved eight days ago, that would have let the town of Palm Beach use the city’s public beach as a staging area for a town beach renourishment project.
When the City Commission voted 4-1 on Dec. 3 to grant the town access to the city beach, they did so illegally because they violated — unknowingly apparently — a city charter provision, approved by voters in 2009, prohibiting the pumping of sand onto Lake Worth Beach from off-shore borrow sites. The provision also prohibits the beach from being used as a staging area for dredge and fill projects.
Town dump trucks were supposed to start dumping sand on the south end of the city beach on Jan. 1, a project that would have lasted up to 45 days. But that’s not going to happen, Lake Worth Beach’s city attorneys said Dec. 11.
What happened? The 2009 charter change was never codified into the city charter, an apparent error by the city clerk at the time.
And when commissioners considered the agreement with Palm Beach on Dec. 3, no one at City Hall remembered the 2009 referendum, which was approved by 70 percent of the voters.
That changed Dec. 10 when Cara Jennings, a city commissioner in 2009, sent a letter to the current mayor and commissioners reminding them of the referendum and charter provision.
Commissioner Chris McVoy, who cast the lone “no” vote on Dec. 3, forwarded Jennings’ letter to the city attorneys, who confirmed the interlocal agreement violates the city charter and has to be canceled.
Interim City Manager Jamie Brown “has informed, or will be informing, the Town that the city cannot proceed with the Interlocal Agreement due to the Charter amendment that has come to light,’’ City Attorney Elizabeth Lenihan wrote Dec. 11 in an email to McVoy.
The reversal marks a bizarre twist to a project that sparked anger by many city residents about the town using the city’s beach as a dumping ground. The town asked the city for permission because residents of a town condo didn't want to be bothered with truck noise from sand deliveries anymore.
Had the charter change been correctly codified in 2009, McVoy said he “would like to think” that the current staff would have caught the sand-dumping prohibition and rejected the town’s request.
In her letter to commissioners, Jennings said she was “shocked” that no one at City Hall in the weeks and months before the Dec. 3 vote “brought up the 2009 ballot referendum that prohibits this exact activity.’’
After the vote, Jennings said she looked up the city charter “and was dismayed to find the referendum was never added.’’ Through a public records request to the Palm Beach County Elections Supervisor’s Office, she found the ballot language and results.
Neither Mayor Betty Resch nor any of the current commissioners sat on the commission in 2009. But at least two current elected officials, Resch and McVoy, were living in the city at the time.
Resch could not be reached. McVoy, after reading Jennings letter, said he vaguely recalled the referendum but didn’t remember the specific prohibition on dredging activity.
“I don't even know that you could say it fell through the cracks. It kind of is a result of turnover, and the previous clerk should have done her job, honestly, but she didn’t,’’ said Commissioner Mimi May, who reluctantly voted in favor of the project Dec. 3.
But the codification error aside, Jennings was among many residents in town dismayed that the city would even allow town trucks to use its popular beach in the heart of tourist season.
“Now, we have a commission so out of touch with the public that they would approve trucks driving onto our beach, which would have met large public opposition once the trucks started rolling,’’ she wrote to the mayor and commissioners.
“Now it's your job to uphold the charter, to direct staff to cancel the approval for the dredge and fill activity you voted for. Many of us will be watching to make sure the prior vote is overturned.’’
The current city clerk has codified the 2009 referendum in the city charter and confirmed there are no other charter changes that still need to be codified, said Lenihan, the city attorney.
City officials had been negotiating with the town for use of the city beach at least since June. At a Palm Beach Town Council July 9, the town public works director acknowledged Lake Worth Beach in the past had refused to let the town use the city beach for a staging area. Officials at the July meeting did not mention the 2009 city referendum.
Jennings said she found it “hard to imagine that the town of Palm Beach forgot that we banned them from having access via our public beach. The impetus for the 2009 referendum was opposition to them using our beach for the Reach 8 ‘Beach Renourishment’ dredge and fill project.’’
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About the author
Joe Capozzi is an award-winning reporter based in Lake Worth Beach. He spent more than 30 years writing for newspapers, mostly at The Palm Beach Post, where he wrote about the opioid scourge, invasive pythons, the birth of the Ballpark of the Palm Beaches and Palm Beach County government. For 15 years, he covered the Miami Marlins baseball team. Joe left The Post in December 2020. View all posts by Joe Capozzi.