Stet NewsHappy Tuesday! For you today, the half-dozen candidates to be the next county administrator, where we’re growing, farewell to a retro market, making police calls healthier and a historic gathering spot rises from the ashes.
🕵 And then there were six
A task force narrowed the field for Palm Beach County administrator to seven candidates last week from nearly 100. Then one of the seven dropped out, cutting the field to six.
Why it’s important: After Verdenia Baker held the job for nearly 10 years, county commissioners are preparing to pick a chief executive to run one of the area’s largest employers, with 6,500 workers, and a $9 billion budget. Among the duties, the administrator recommends how the county spends $1.5 billion a year in property taxes.
Zoom in: The task force plans to interview six finalists, who include two high-level internal candidates — Patrick Rutter and Isami Ayala-Collazo — and a local elected official, County Clerk and Comptroller Joe Abruzzo.
- The remaining three are Keith Clinkscales, director of strategic planning and performance management for Palm Beach County; Cornell Wesley, director of the Department of Innovation and Economic Opportunity for Birmingham, Ala.; and Eric Johnson, city manager of Norcross, Ga.
- The task force also selected Adrian Jones, an office principal with S&ME Engineering, but he withdrew.
Three of the remaining finalists are white men, two are Black men and one is a Puerto Rican woman.
The seven-member task force, chaired by business leader John R. Smith, has been charged with recommending up to five finalists to the County Commission by early June. Baker plans to depart at the end of May.
The county did not hire a headhunter to recommend candidates but received 223 applications. In screening out candidates who did not meet the county’s minimum qualifications, county staff reduced the list to 96.
- The task force rejected 89 and supported seven.
What’s next: Interviews are scheduled to start at 8:30 am Friday at the county’s Vista Center, 2300 Jog Road. The county plans to make the interviews available via live streaming but has not yet announced where.
Editor’s note: On Tuesday, May 20, the County Commission voted to cancel the task force’s public interviews scheduled for Friday, May 23. Instead, commissioners will interview the candidates privately on June 16 and set up a meeting that evening for candidates to answer questions from the public. Commissioners plan to make their decision June 17.
Who supported who? Click here to read more about which task force members supported which candidates and why.
Check out the resumes of the six finalists.
Video: Watch the two-hour task force meeting by clicking here.
— Joel Engelhardt
🔢 10,000 new neighbors
West Palm Beach is the county’s fastest-growing large city, according to new Census estimates.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Orchid City grew by more than 10,000 residents, or almost 9%, for an estimated population of 127,744.
Other PBC population movers in order of percentage growth since 2020:
- Palm Beach Gardens grew by about 4,100 residents, or nearly 7%, to 63,284.
- Royal Palm Beach grew by about 2,500 residents, or more than 6%, for a total of nearly 42,000 people.
- Palm Springs grew by nearly 1,700 residents, or more than 6%, for a population of more than 28,000. Estimates show a nearly 1,000-person increase in 2023.
- Riviera Beach added about 2,000 residents since the pandemic to grow about 5% to more than 39,000.
The big picture: Nearly 90,000 more people now live in Palm Beach County than since the beginning of the pandemic, according to Census estimates released in March. The estimates were limited to cities with more than 20,000 people.
The boom in PSL: From 2020 to 2024, Port St. Lucie added more than 53,000 residents to grow 26% to more than 258,000 in population.
Of note: Key West is the city in Florida that lost the most population since 2020. It is more than 4%, or 1,200 residents, smaller at just over 25,000.
— Carolyn DiPaolo
🧺 Yankee Peddler market closing
The last heirloom tomato will soon leave the shelves of Yankee Peddler Produce & Market as it shuts down after more than 40 years.
What’s happened: The gourmet market that’s been a fixture on U.S. 1 between North Palm Beach and Juno Beach is closing. The owner, Matt Lashinger, has sold the property and business.
Why it matters: Residents from West Palm Beach to Jupiter have relied on the market that filled a need long before Doris Italian Market, Trader Joe’s or even Publix moved into the area.
- During the holidays, the small store was packed with both home and pro cooks snapping up beans and Brussels sprouts, fish dip, cheeses and desserts. The store carried fresh breads, prepared foods and imported goods, along with produce.
- Yankee Peddler was the go-to place for fresh flowers.
Surprise loss: The notice came suddenly, as customers were told last week the shop would close within two weeks. It is expected to change hands at the end of the month. Workers said they will be out of a job, since the new owners were not planning to keep the market open.
What they’re saying: “Tomatoes — they had the best, and escarole for my Thanksgiving salad,” said Riviera Beach native Susan Nefzger. “I loved it because I could go in after swimming on Celestial Way, and they didn’t care if I was in my bathing suit. They knew your name, too.”
Of note: The property just south of Captain’s Key is slightly bigger than a half-acre. It sold for $1.2 million in 2023 to a company run by Lashinger and his family.
Closing soon: Prices were reduced by 40 percent on Monday.
– Jan Norris
🛟 Police COAST into mental health care
Collaboration between police and mental health experts is boosting care for people in crisis.
What’s happening: Five local law enforcement agencies — West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach, North Palm Beach, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office and Palm Beach Gardens — have joined since August with the county Health Care District to provide an alternative to jail for people with mental illness.
- It’s called the Crisis Outreach and Support Team, or COAST.
- Police and health care experts work together to respond to emergency calls.
About 100 community officials attended the announcement Wednesday at the West Palm Beach police station.
Why it’s important: When police officers arrive at a mental health call, the Baker Act allows them to transport the patient to a mental health facility for a 72-hour hold if they are determined to be a threat to themselves or others.
- Too often, health officials say, patients who do not meet the threshold are released or jailed without proper care.
- They go untreated. The cycle repeats. And repeats.
About 300 people have been treated under the COAST program. Almost all avoided admission to a hospital under the Baker Act, officials said.
What they are saying: “COAST is stopping the cycle. People are being treated with dignity,” West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James said.
“When health care experts and police officers work side by side, patients get immediate access to the care they need,” said Darcy Davis, president and chief executive officer of the Health Care District of Palm Beach County.
What’s next: The location of a $60 million, 60,000-square-foot Health Care District centralized receiving center that Stet reported on this year is expected to be announced later this year. The Palm Beach County Commission voted in January to contribute $10 million. The district plans to pay the rest.
Read more: Click here to see more of the story.
— Bill DiPaolo
🍊 The Juice
Within view of the Boynton Beach Library on a summer’s day in 1983, Christopher Wilder abducted Kristine Heck and her 10-year-old sister and took them miles away near Okeeheelee Park in West Palm Beach. Wilder, a millionaire and Boynton Beach resident, would kidnap 12 women across the country, killing nine, in a nearly two-month rampage. But Kristine Heck lived to tell the tale. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
☀️New College of Florida will pay $125,000 in attorney’s fees and require its trustees to use agency-issued phones to conduct official business to settle a 2023 lawsuit filed by the Florida Center for Government Accountability over the school’s failure to comply with state public record law. (Florida Trident)
👟 Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has threatened legal action against the Life Time gym in Palm Beach Gardens over a complaint that it lets transgender women use the women’s locker room. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
📍 Jupiter Town Council is scheduled to begin sorting through 18 applications tonight for an open seat on the council. Read about the applicants here. (Stet News)
🚊 Brightline unveiled new, discounted commuter train passes after receiving criticism for raising prices on its previously announced commuter passes.
🇪🇸 Fan favorite Real Madrid has chosen the Gardens North County District Park for its practice venue before the 2025 Club World Cup. (FootBoom)
💸 Cost overruns at two affordable housing complexes are frustrating county commissioners, who reluctantly approved nearly $2 million to keep them on track. (The Palm Beach Post $$$)
🌎 Quote of the week: “We are literally at the epicenter of the real estate market in this country, and then, to top it all off, this site overlooks Mar-a-Lago, which is now maybe the best known home on Planet Earth.” — Harvey Oyer, arguing for developers in favor of an 18-story waterfront condominium near Southern Boulevard that won approvallast week from the West Palm Beach City Commission.
🌅 561NSIDER: Roosters rebirth
More than 300 people attended the grand reopening Monday evening of H.G. Roosters, a West Palm Beach gay bar nearly destroyed in a fire exactly five years ago.
The bar on Belvedere Road east of Interstate 95 underwent a $2.5 million makeover — from a lighted cristallo quartzite bartop and expanded seating to a larger kitchen and a new fire suppression system.
What they’re saying: “When the flames rose in 2020, it wasn’t just a building that was damaged, it was a home for so many. Yet with love, grit and community support Roosters has risen again stronger, more beautiful and ready for its next chapter,’’ West Palm Beach City Commissioner Christina Lambert said.
Other dignitaries at the ribbon-cutting ceremony: Palm Beach County Commissioner Gregg Weiss, West Palm Commissioner Christy Fox and city Fire Chief Diana Matty and Police Chief Antonio “Tony” Araujo.
“We finally made it!” said Julie Seaver, executive director of Compass Community Center, who added with a joke: “It only took a global pandemic, a five-year construction marathon and a few emotional support cocktails — I mean groups — to get us to this moment.’’
Catch up quick: The fire broke out on May 19, 2020, when rags spontaneously combusted after being used to refinish wood furniture with linseed oil.
At the time, Roosters had been closed for two months because of COVID. Owner A.J. Wasson kept employees on the payroll doing odd jobs. To free up money to pay their salaries, he let the building’s property insurance lapse.
The West Palm Beach City Commission in 2021 designated Roosters a historic site, recognizing its history dating to 1984, when it provided housing, food and comfort to those afflicted with AIDS.
- The city plans to chip in $166,000 in economic development money toward the bar’s reconstruction.
Rebuilding “was a mission,” Wasson said. “I am not a spiritual person but it seemed like some little manna from heaven would come by and keep us going.’’
What’s next: The Historical Society of Palm Beach County will host a Pride Month exhibit in June charting the bar’s history.
- A reception and panel discussion is scheduled for 5:30 pm June 4 at the Historical Society’s museum, 300 N. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach.
Read more: How Roosters rose from the ashes.
— Joe Capozzi
