Joel EngelhardtDivided council names Marcie Tinsley to replace Chelsea Reed as mayor; Dana Middleton remains vice mayor.
After three years, Chelsea Reed is no longer mayor of Palm Beach Gardens.
The traditionally collegial in-house selection turned icy Thursday as Reed pleaded with her colleagues to let her complete her final year on the council as mayor.
The council voted 3-2 against Reed’s nomination. It also rejected her nomination of Vice Mayor Dana Middleton.
The dispute over what amounts to a ceremonial post goes back to last year, when Reed, Middleton and Carl Woods voted to vault Middleton over Marcie Tinsley for vice mayor even though Tinsley had served longer. Traditionally, the vice mayor is next in line to be mayor.
This year, Reed could no longer count on Woods’ vote. He left the council because of term limits.
The new fifth council member, John Kemp, a county firefighter, won election in March. As Stet reported last month, there could be friction with Reed, who endorsed Kemp’s opponent and published a blog critical of county firefighters.
After Tinsley, Kemp and Bert Premuroso rejected nominations of Reed and Middleton, Reed accused them of plotting in secret.
“I have a feeling someone has been talking about things and planning,” Reed said. “So why don’t you go ahead and share with us, Bert?”
“There’s no planning going on, mayor,” Premuroso replied before nominating Tinsley.
Kemp, Premuroso and Tinsley voted to hand the position to Tinsley, who had been reelected to the council in March by a wide margin to a second consecutive three-year term.
They chose Middleton as vice mayor.
‘I hate to say I’
During the meeting, Reed explained why she did not support Tinsley for mayor.
The discussion began with Middleton nominating Reed for mayor. When no one seconded the nomination, Reed did.
And she didn’t mince words to explain why she merited a fourth term.
“I hate to say ‘I,’” she began. “One thing I don’t know if anyone’s noticed in the few years that I’ve had the opportunity to sit here, very rarely does the word ‘me’ or ‘I’ come out, because we are a team.”
She described how she longed for Gardens council members to join her in Tallahassee for committee meetings or to fight for city rights in Washington.
“Never before has Palm Beach Gardens had a placard at every important meeting,” she said.
Reed, in her final year on the council, has risen to head both the county League of Cities and the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency, which sets priorities for road projects throughout the county. She’s also on the Florida League of Cities board.
“And because of that, I do not support Marcie coming in as mayor,” she continued. “She has not come to D.C. She has not come to Tallahassee. She’s the representative for the Palm Beach County League of Cities and I don’t think I’ve seen her at the monthly meetings held in different locations.
“That gives me pause. People are used to meeting with myself, with the vice mayor, and in order to have continuity, it makes sense for either me to stay or Dana to step in,” she said.
“I understand the relationship here. Marcie, you have three more years on council. I have one. I want to finish what I started.”
‘Life after Chelsea’
Premuroso told Reed he respected her but wouldn’t support her.
“My suggestion is, essentially, we have to have life after Chelsea, which I know is going to be hard for us to deal with, but your experience now to pass that on to other members of this council before you rotate out in 12 months, to me, is valuable,” he said.
Tinsley did not speak until she thanked Reed after the vote.
“Chelsea, you’ve done a tremendous job representing the city of Palm Beach Gardens. I know I’m going to have big shoes to fill. I appreciate it. I’ve done it before and I have participated in a lot of events, a lot of ribbon cuttings, a lot of chamber events.”
As for flying to Tallahassee?
“There’s no point in spending taxpayer dollars, and all of us going to Tallahassee, when we had excellent advocacy up there with you,” she said.
Editor’s Note: This story was corrected after publication to remove a line stating that Premuroso and Tinsley opposed the measure to make Middleton vice mayor in 2024. They voted in favor of it.
